In recent weeks a mini-crises has evolved at Tampa's City Hall, as hundreds of people have complained about excessive charges on their recent water bills.
Last Thursday, just some of those people affected by this curious phenomenon spoke out at the Tampa City Council's weekly meeting, leading Steve Daignault, the city's Public Works & Utility Services Director, and Water Department head Brad Baird, to say that they would meet individually to hear of their water bill woes.
Today, those two city officials released a report, based on 12 specific complaints, several of them documented in the local media. Their verdict? 8 of the 12 with problems were due to leaks of some sort, and the other 4 were "resolved either by billing, actual use or explanation."
In their memo, Daignault & Baird write that there is no single smoking gun reason for the high water bills; the city has found leaks and breaks on the properties that they have investigated, and thus those are the causes of such high charges in some circumstances. And that every year there are some customers with higher than usual usage, but the combination of busted water pipes because of the excessive cold and the fact that the city last spring added two additional tiers for high water users are contributing factors as well.
The two officials also take City Councilman Joseph Caetano to task on a letter he wrote to the Tampa Tribune, stating that the example he gave was incorrect.
This article appears in Jan 20-26, 2011.