CENTERVILLE —
A letter sent by the Centerville Municipal Waterworks Board of Directors to their customers regarding late fees, red tags and delinquent accounts has generated tremendous controversy.
Public reaction to the board's letter called it arrogant, disrespectful, childish and a waste of resources. Others defended the water board for trying to deal with the issues.
The letter dated Aug. 28 talks about the water department's payment schedule, late fee payment schedule, red tag fee, the disconnect and reconnect policy and the reason why the letter was sent in the first place.
"On August 16, active accounts with the Centerville Municipal Waterworks had $165,124.33 in unpaid water/sewer bills," states the second sentence in the first paragraph.
Judy Green, water department billing clerk, broke down the six charges for Centerville residents' water bill: WA (water), measured in cubic feet, USER FEE, an administrative fee for water and it never changes, SEWER, a $20 surcharge with the rest based on water usage, SEWER FEE, an administrative fee for sewer and it never changes, STM WATER, storm water fee and it never changes and SALES TAX, Iowa's sales tax, which is 7 percent in Appanoose County.
Out of those six charges — water, user fee and sales tax — are going to the water department with — sewer, sewer fee and storm water — being collected by the city.
What doesn't help the water department's image is it appears the entire bill is paid to the water department but sewer charges are paid to the city.
"The water board has no control over the sewer and unfortunately when somebody sees their water bill they see that and think, 'Boy, look how expensive our water bill is,'" board president Carl Cisler said during a telephone call Friday, Sept. 14. "Well, the water part of it is definitely a lot lower than what the sewer part is."
Indeed, a Centerville resident who is billed the minimum each month will pay $64.66, with $24.33 going to the water department for water and related charges and the rest goes to the city.
However, the more water a customer uses, not only does the water and sales tax charge go up but so to does the sewer charge. Heavy water users who use more than the minimum of 240 cubic feet per month would see a larger overall bill that would be closer to equal amounts, or even a larger amount, going to the water department.
Cisler said the letter was the only way to ensure every water customer knew about the changes in late fee, red tag schedule and the high number of delinquent accounts. He said a notice in the newspaper would not guarantee every customer would see it.
"And the suggestion was, 'Hey, everybody needs to have a letter so they can't say they didn't know about it," Cisler said. "And that's why we did what we did and sent out the letter."
Cisler said because water bills were one of the last to be paid, the water board was forced to do something to get delinquent accounts under control or they would have to raise water rates for all users.
"And we figured why should people that are already suffering pay a pretty stiff bill," Cisler said. "Why are they going to have to pay more because somebody else doesn't pay. If you pay your bill on time, why do you have to subsidize people that don't pay their bills?"
Cisler said the water department's move to City Hall is saving money and helps off set a Rathbun Regional Water Association water rate increase imposed in July of 2011. Cisler said they've been able to absorb the water rate increase and not pass it along to the end user.
"And to not pass it along, we had to get our delinquent's under control and for a long time I think it was never not addressed in that way and I credit Kim and it's not got any better and so that's why we decided to put a policy in place that made people to either understand if they don't pay the bill what the consequences were," Cisler said. "And they were going to be a lot greater than they were before because before they weren't that great. And so it cost the city, it cost the water company more money to shut people off and turn people back on and send red tags than people were getting charged for it. And so we thought that we needed to put some pressure on the people that didn't pay their bills every month to make them so that they would make a conscious decision to pay their bill."
Also something Green pointed out was the number of red tags the water department has issued has dropped since May, when they had 255. In June they issued 150 red tags, in July 110, in August 154 and in September 178.
Cisler said 255 water red tags equals 10 percent of the total customer base of approximately 2,450.
Cisler said at one time red tag fee was $5; now it's $50.
Cisler said the water board had two reasons to raise the late fees:
It was costing the water department more money to issue a red tag or disconnect that the customer was being charged and the water department was being paid, and they had to do something to get the number of red tag and delinquent accounts down.
Cisler said under the previous water boards there were customers who were up to four months behind.
"And so we've worked through all that and now there's no way that that can happen," Cisler said. "And we did know the way we was going if we didn't do something we was going to have to raise the rates just to pay for neglect."
Appanoose County rural residents not living in Centerville bypass the water department and deal directly with Rathbun Regional Water Association. The minimum water bill for rural customers is $25.95 for up to 2,000 gallons of water, which includes the 7 percent sales tax.
Centerville residents who use the minimum of 240 cubic feet of water are using 1,795 gallons and are paying $24.33.
The difference rural residents pay is not much different from what Centerville residents pay for water.
Local News
Related Photos
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Thursday afternoon the Centerville Municipal Waterworks board of directors and others met at City Hall. From the top to the right are Judy Green, water department billing clerk, Steve Hawkins, water pollution control superintendent, board members Linda Miller and Nancy Bennett, Kim Crego, city clerk and commissioner of municipal services, president of the board Carl Cisler and Nancy Huisman, with Hall Engineering. Photo by Michael Schaffer/Daily Iowegian
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September 21, 2012
Water board letter generates controversy
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