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Ocoee city staff stunned commissioners last week with the news that residents owe the city $2.1 million in unpaid water bills.
More bad news: $493,000 of that debt is uncollectible because those accounts are five or more years in arrears, explained Steve Weber, the city finance director. The statute of limitations for collecting debt in Florida is five years.
The news came as City Manager Craig Shadrix sought approval at the April 7 city commission meeting to write off the uncollectible debt and return to the municipal code’s stricter policies, enforced pre-COVID, to prevent scofflaws from running up huge balances before their water is shut off. City staff also want to raise rates for deposits, reconnection fees and penalties and institute some collection procedures.
“A lot of policies got relaxed during the pandemic and what happens, you know, post-pandemic, you have to kind of reel things back in,” Shadrix told commissioners. “Last year, we had several incidents where customers had called in about having their water cut off and complained … and upon further inquiry, they were carrying large balances, which is not supposed to happen.”
Shadrix described a “whole scatter-board of different payment plans that have been put in place. So we acted on that, and we are here today to try and address it.”
Utilities Director Jen Bowling noted that at one rental home, the unpaid water bill had ballooned to $10,000, the result of a revolving door of tenants opening up new accounts while the previous accounts went unpaid.
Mayor Rusty Johnson was floored. “ When I had a rental house I rented out years ago, when [tenants] left and didn't pay, I had to pay. What's the difference between the landlords of this?”
Weber explained that holding property owners accountable for outstanding balances was “one of the COVID-era processes that kind of changed. We have it in the municipal code … and so we just want to get back to following that code.”
“These figures are astounding to me,” said Commissioner Rosemary Wilsen who represents District 2. She acknowledged that “we got soft” during the pandemic. “I’m not here to criticize,” she said. “I think we kind of let things, unfortunately, get to this point. We have to stop the bleeding now.”
“My mind is just blown,” said Commissioner Scott Kennedy who represents District 1. “Part of what you're asking us is for staff to start following the existing code. Am I misstating that?”
“No, you are not misstating that,” Weber replied.
Shadrix, Bolling and Weber repeatedly stated that they wanted re-affirmation from the commission to re-instate and adhere to pre-pandemic policies — which led Kennedy to ask why they weren’t doing so before.
“How did policy get away from the code?” he asked, incredulous.
Kennedy’s question did not receive a definitive response, so VoxPopuli followed up with Assistant City Manager Mike Rumer after the meeting to ask Kennedy's question again.
In a Friday email, Rumer replied, “The staff report is sufficient in answering that the City initiated a comprehensive review of its utility billing operations after identifying inconsistent application of billing processes, outdated municipal code language, and legacy procedures that no longer aligned with current operational needs.”
Bowling and Weber highlighted steps the city has put into place for better communication with residents about water use and billing and the rate increases and fee collection practices that still required commission approval to implement. The commission voted unanimously to approve all of them. Updated ordinances will come back before the commission at a later date. These new practices include:
Meanwhile, District 3 Commissioner Richard Firstner said he wants to see a plan to get the city's $1.5 million back.
“We need to address what you need in the way of enforcing and collecting that money that's outstanding to us, which is a significant amount,” he said. “Budget is coming up if you need people for enforcement purposes or whatever. I'd like to see that, you know, in your budget requests. But I think we need some type of plan to aggressively try to recoup that money.”
