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Computer errors double some water bills

Published Saturday, March 18, 2000 By Bob Page

POMONA -- About 700 home and business owners got a little shock earlier this month if they looked closely at their water bills.

That's because the city's computers misread that many water meters for one or two days, resulting in overcharges for 2.4 percent of the city's 29,000 customers, Utility Services Director Henry Pepper said Friday.

City officials have instructed computers not to order anyone's water shut off if their inflated bill is unpaid while the accounts are corrected.

"We're in the process of rereading all those accounts and getting out corrected bills with letters of apology," Pepper said.

Pepper's promise was a nice 87th birthday present for Henry Fuchs, who said his bill was almost double what he usually pays.

Fuchs said everyone in his neighborhood near Ganesha Park has been talking about the high-priced water for the past week.

One of his neighbors, who is a lawyer, Anita Middleton, even fired off a letter Monday accusing city officials of fraud because the meter readings were so off.

She questioned whether city officials had even read the water meters. One of her neighbor's meters had to be cleaned with strong cleanser before a reading could be taken after the bills arrived, she said.

She wrote she represented some of her neighbors, hinting that a lawsuit would be filed if the bills were not corrected.

Middleton said Friday that the city has so far shown her that they are trying to correct the problem by sending someone out to read all the meters.

Her patience, however, will run out in two weeks if she hasn't received a corrected bill.

"If it's something that will continue, I'll have a problem with that," Middleton said. "I may be a lawyer, but I can do a whole lot with $40 (her overcharge). I'd rather have it in my pocket than give it to the city."

Fuchs, who has lived in the city about 30 years, was calm about the billing error.

"I just figured he misread the meter," Fuchs said. "I figured if they misread it, I would be billed less next time."

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-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 18, 2000