Villagers who disagree with unexplained spikes in their water usage could face shutoff if they don’t pay their bills.
At least two homeowners who don’t agree with the unexplained, unusually high bills from the The Villages Utility Department have refused to pay the bills, which are being disputed.
Assistant District Manager Bruce Brown told members of the North Sumter County Utility Dependent District on Monday that that those two customers have refused to pay their disputed bills and could face late fees and shutoff.
“Staff doesn’t have the discretion to wipe away a bill simply because the resident doesn’t like it,” Brown said.
In March, residents lined up at the podium to tell eerily similar stories about sudden spikes in water usage resulting in unusually high bills. For most of those residents, water usage returned to normal the next month. District utility representatives reportedly blamed the bills, many of which included usage tens of thousands of gallons higher than normal, on a “leaky toilet.” Homeowners swore up and down that their “leaky toilet” was never found and never fixed and their usage dropped as dramatically as it had risen.
Brown told the skeptical NSCUDD board members that the water meters at homes in The Villages are working properly.
“The number of meters that actually fail is extremely low,” Brown said.
NSCUDD Director Dan Warren, a resident of the Village of Gilchrist, suggested that Brown was missing the point.
“It’s not an issue of meters, it is an issue of unexplained spikes,” Warren said.
Warren also suggested residents have been treated rudely when they have gone through proper channels and tried to explain the unexplained usage spikes.
“People were told to pay up!” Warren said.
If residents don’t “pay up,” they will face late fees and potential water shutoff.
Meanwhile, District staff are working on a policy that could provide one-time waivers for Villagers with unexplained spikes in their bills. Customers currently battling their bills cannot seek protection under the policy, as it has not been finalized and would need to be approved by the NSCUDD board at a future meeting.
In a separate issue, Brown offered a presentation recommending that the board reduce the number of monthly meetings. He suggested that too much staff time is being consumed by the growing number of government meetings, due to the creation of new governmental bodies necessitated by the rapid growth of The Villages. NSCUDD members bristled at the idea and countered that reducing the number of meetings would cut down on the number of opportunities for residents to bring their concerns before the elected board, which is made up of fellow Villagers. Brown suggested cutting down the number of meetings from 12 to seven.
“I think we should reject this idea,” Warren said.
