Water shutoffs open spigot on past due bills

By John Howell
Posted 5/4/17

By JOHN HOWELL City Hall was prepared to handle an onslaught of calls Tuesday as Water Division crews shut off service to customers for the non-payment of water and sewer bills. But, said administrative assistant Bruce Keiser, as of 3:30 p.m. the mayor's

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Water shutoffs open spigot on past due bills

Posted

City Hall was prepared to handle an onslaught of calls Tuesday as Water Division crews shut off service to customers for the non-payment of water and sewer bills.

But, said administrative assistant Bruce Keiser, as of 3:30 p.m. the mayor’s office had received a single call. Keiser said a payment plan was worked out with the caller so they could have service restored.

The shutoffs had the desired effect, as people turned up at the City Hall Annex to pay their bills – plus a $100 fee. This could be the norm for some time as 900 water and sewer customers with a total delinquency of $2 million have been warned of shutoff.

This isn’t the first they have heard of it either.

Efforts to collect the delinquent utility bills came under criticism about two years ago when the city listed around 2,700 properties in a tax sale. Members of the City Council questioned what measures the city had taken before the drastic step to put properties up for sale. The administration removed utility delinquencies from the sale but didn’t make for payments. At the direction of Ward 5 Councilman Ed Ladouceur, a committee was created to examine how best to collect payments due.

Ladouceur said Tuesday he identified the problem within “20 minutes” of the first committee meeting: the city wasn’t issuing past due notices.

“They should have been doing that years ago,” he said. Ladouceur said shutoff warnings should have gone out and followed up if payment wasn’t received.

Eventually that was the plan the city adopted, although it wasn’t until this week that shutoffs were made.

“You know why they didn’t send out notices [in 2016], it was an election year,” said Ladouceur. By the time the election was over, it was nearing cooler weather and the moratorium on utility shutoffs. In April the city stepped up collection efforts, again sending warnings of shutoffs unless the past due amount was paid in full or a payment plan was worked out. The effort was successful as the outstanding amount due was reduced from $3.9 million to $2 million during April according to Tax Collector Kyla Jones.

Jones said Wednesday services to about 20 houses were shut off between Monday and Tuesday, starting with the most back due accounts. She said in situations where shutoff crews found people at home they were given the opportunity to pay their bill by the end of the day without interruption of service or a fee.

But even with threats of shutoffs and a deadline, about 900 delinquents hadn’t responded by the end of April. David Bagian was one of them.

A Providence firefighter, Bagian was at the Annex Tuesday afternoon to write a $4,000 check, plus the $100 fee, to get his water service restored. Bagian couldn’t remember whether he received a warning, although he had a good idea of how he had come to owe so much in sewer and water bills. He was also past due on sewer assessments. (Water shutoffs are not made for delinquent assessment payments.) He explained he bought the property relatively recently, and while it is a single house the land is comprised of three lots with assessments on each of the lots. Not all the assessments were current.

Bagian said he was told after paying the amount due that it would be eight hours before service was restored. As it was already Tuesday afternoon, he didn’t expect water until Wednesday.

“I’m telling my wife to go to her parents,” he said.

Ladouceur is frustrated that it has taken so long for the city to clamp down on the delinquents, not that he is looking to squeeze them for the money.

“The fact of the matter is,” he said, “it’s the city’s fault these people are in trouble.”

With regular delinquency notices and a strict shutoff plan, Ladouceur reasons people wouldn’t have fallen so far behind that it becomes increasingly difficult for them to pay.

Comments

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  • richardcorrente

    Ed Ladouceur is right again.

    He noticed "in the first 20 minutes" of the first committee meeting that we had a serious problem. For the record, I have been notified of over a thousand people who owed over a thousand dollars each on their water bills. You may have noticed them in the last election. They were many of the people who had Avedisian signs on their front lawns and even on their businesses. (even though it cost them "business") The demand was "Put an Avedisian sign on your restaurant, gas station or home. You owe too much on your water bill to refuse!" I met with many of them during my campaign including one business owner who was forced to have an Avedisian sign in spite of the fact that he had never even met the Mayor, not even at his grand opening that I attended, and his business is on the Apponaug Circle. The Mayor could have walked over! One of the things I brought up in my mayoral campaign was bringing these past water bills current. It will generate millions of revenue that will help "cut taxes - cut spending" for the rest of us.

    Congratulations to the City Council for taking an ethical stand.

    Happy Summer everyone

    Rick Corrente

    The Taxpayers Mayor

    Thursday, May 4, 2017 Report this

  • Scal1024

    Rick, not only are you a failed candidate. We can now add unethical liar to the list. How do you get the right to question anyone on past due utilities? You are the same person who talked about the tax burden, while never actually paying your FULL, fair share of taxes ON TIME.

    Perhaps you think voters are as ill informed and ignorant to facts as you are, but as the last election proved that is not the case.

    I would love the names of these businesses with past due water bills that had Avesesian signs. My guess is you won't have any answers. You'll go comment on some honor roll post, and pander to the teachers as you've embarrassingly done for the last 2+ years. You are a BS artist who has to lie because you have nothing to offer as a candidate.

    You've made more excuses for why you lost the election, everything except blame yourself. You had 2 years, you had the money, everybody in this city knows you had the signs. YOU LOST!!! Exit stage right and let an actual, qualified, informed, intelligent lrrson

    Thursday, May 4, 2017 Report this

  • Scal1024

    *person run.

    Thursday, May 4, 2017 Report this

  • Thecaptain

    This guy still has the unmitigated gall to speak about unpaid tax bills when he holds the trophy, (next to Travis) for the most unpaid taxes in the city.. His rhetoric can only suggest that he is delusional. Blames everyone for his delinquencies, never his obligation, excuse after excuse for being a bust out.

    Either you either enjoy being abused by the facts or you are simply mentally incompetent. Your overdue property taxes during the time that you spent as a squatter for more than 2 years at 177 Grand View that you lost to tax sale and foreclosure amounted to $8080.41. You never paid these bills although you lived on the property. This bill was paid by Redstick Aquasitions on 4/20/2017. Your utility bill for your water usage during the time that you squatted on the premises while your home was in foreclosure was also paid by Redstick. You lived there tax free, used water to wash your ass, and never paid the bill. Now you have the balls to make statement that "IF you were the mayor (not a chance in hell) that you would send shut off notices? To who? Yourself?? You don't even have the integrity to pay your bills and you think that you have political aspirations? Get help.

    Friday, May 5, 2017 Report this

  • RISchadenfreude

    The City Council's decision is having the desired effect- once the scofflaws realize that their debts are no longer a joke, they start running to pay their due...funny how that works...

    I hope they pass similar legislation to collect property taxes, excise taxes, etc.; they show up with the money that's due, which demonstrates that they CHOSE to not pay until "encouraged" to do so.

    Monday, May 8, 2017 Report this