Letter to the Editor: Mayor replies to Sun's editorial

Editor:

There is a fine line in an editorial that is written to be informative and fair to one that is written to keep the pot stirred. The editorial in the July 24th edition was nothing more than an attempt to keep the pot stirred.

Since we are not privy to who actually wrote the editorial, we can only assume that it is the one that covers the meetings and the only one that has ever bothered to come in and ask questions. Any other staff member that may have written the Editorial has never come in and asked any questions. I support the Saratoga Sun standing up for a cause, but it should be fair and impartial reporting, not one sided.

As far as saying the towns solution is for the consumer to check their water bills, that’s not a solution that is common sense. We encourage the consumer to check their bill just like they would do when they eat out, buy groceries, or make any other purchase. The town hall staff has been checking the accounts and making adjustment prior, in some cases, to the consumers coming in.

The town has always allowed the consumer access to information relating to water usage. If the consumer would like to see the reading that is in the meter pit, we only ask that they call and set up a time for one of the employee’s to open the pit so the consumer can check the reading. As far as looking at the readings at town hall, those readings have been adjusted many times in order for the bill to be generated at the base rate. They can come in and the staff can pull up the readings in the Sensus program and they can check their current usage.

I’m really not sure how much more fair the town can be, as far as taking responsibility we have made adjustments many times to the water bills. It might also come as a surprise to the Saratoga Sun that 90 percent of the consumers have been very understanding and appreciative of how the town has handled the issue. There are those that have even had to agree that they have probably used more water than they were billed for.

In the past two years there has been 110 million gallons of water that the town has not been able to bill for. Some of this is due to the fact we billed the base rate during this time. The loss in revenue to the town is approximately $25,000 a month for a total of $600,000 dollars over the last two year period.

The Editorial also asked the question if water users should be expected to accept the readings of a potentially inaccurate system. I guess I would counter that question with should the Saratoga Sun expect the readers to accept inaccurate information that is printed.

In the article “Phantom numbers add up to boatload of trouble for water users”

In reporting that there are additional charges that are not itemized in the bills that represent a delinquency charge when corrected it was stated that there are no charges on the bill that are not itemized. Additionally, it was noted that this quote was the result of a conversation from another source that gave the newspaper their interpretation of the issues at hand. This individual and the town have been at odds over this and other issues for several years.

It was further stated that the town can charge a delinquency fee of $1.25 every fifteen days a single bill is late. This was an inaccurate statement and should be corrected as follows:

Saratoga Municipal Code 13.60.010 ( C ) “Charges for services are due by the fifteenth of the month immediately following the month in which the services were provided. A late charge of one dollar and twenty-five cents per service will be charged on the fifteenth day of each month that the bill remains delinquent. Upon a bill, or any portion thereof, becoming sixty or more days delinquent, the following additional provisions shall apply:”

Previously the town was charging a penalty on all accounts that were three months in arrears. The penalty charge increased as the delinquency increased. Currently that penalty is no longer being charged. Penalties\Late Fees are common on most utilities including your telephone.

The base rates being charged were also reported incorrectly and are no longer $25 for the first 7,000 gallons used as there has been an increase in water rates over the last two years.

This type of inaccurate reporting helps fuel the fire as the consumers assume that the paper is giving correct information to its readers.

Mayor John Zeiger

Saratoga

Editor’s Note: The referenced errors in reporting were corrected in last week’s issue of the Saratoga Sun.

Editorials are the opinion of this newspaper much like Letters to the Editor and Columns are the opinions of the writer. Opinions, like editorials, are not always fair and balanced, nor are they intended to be.