Water district agrees to audit bill practices

A water district that serves 16,000 homes in Coral Springs and Parkland has agreed to an audit of its billing practices after throngs of customers complained of skyrocketing water bills.

The North Springs Improvement District’s decision comes after a public outcry. The district had said problems were overstated, and that leaky pipes were a factor.

But so many residents were stepping forward with complaints, it seemed that wasn’t a full explanation of the problem, according to Broward County Commissioner Michael Udine and Parkland Mayor Christine Hunschofsky.

Rod Colon, the district’s deputy director, said he was committed to make this right.

“Wewant to restore public confidence, and we’ll do whatever it takes,” he said. “We’re a government agency, and we want them to be proud of us.”

He said another city that uses similar meters, such as Clearwater of Boca Raton, will evaluate the district’s meters to make sure they are working properly and that residents are being billed accurately.

Udine said he heard from hundreds of residents who said their bills had gone up withnoexplanation— some by “hundreds of dollars. It just didn’t sound right.” An audit “should be able to resolve everyone’s issue.”

That’s welcome news for Parkland resident Natalie Charow, whosaid herwater bill that has usually peaked at $75 had shot up to $304 inMarch.

“I’ve never had a bill like that in the 30 years I lived in Florida,” she said. She said she has no leaks, there is no backyard pool, and her Michael Udine, Broward County commissioner

sprinklers had been off for threeweeks.

When she called the district, shewas offered an $86 credit. “I said, ‘What’s that for?’ She said, ‘Your water bill was high,’ ” Charow said.

Charow said when she called the office a second time to get a copy of her bill, she was given a second credit, for a total of $139.

“I think they are giving credits to everybody just to shut them up,” she said. “But what happens in a month or two?”

Now, she said, “every time I turn on the faucet I cringe.”

Said Colon:

turned “We just don’t give credits out.”

He said her case was likely from a billing error that happened in March. Residentswere billed for 40 days instead of 30, because the districtwas switching to an automated meter-reading system instead of having a person manually do it.

More days in a cycle pushed some homeowners into a higher “tier,” which meant a higher rate for water that is meant to “force people to do conservation.” The higher fee is intended to “punish people for using water,” he said.

Another possibility for the higher fees, Colon said, is a meter change last year from aging meters that favored the homeowners. The new meters “fresh from a factory … are more accurate.”

Still, Udine said he got a second request granted on Friday, too: The district pledged to add a form to its website so customers could file a complaint.

“This will allow NSID staff to check on all of their billing concerns, and address them,” Udine said. “This document should alleviate the issues I raised by keeping a public record of incidents and NSID’s proper follow-through for the benefit of our mutual constituents.”

David Silver, the vice president of the Heron Bay Community Association, said residents were “seeing inconsistencies and nobody was getting an answer what the inconsistencies were.” Silver said some people were “told it was new meters, some told irrigation, some people were told they probably had pool leaks.”

He was waiting for the audit, he said. “I thinkNSID is stepping up and doing the right thing.”

Said Udine: “All I want is what everybody wants: transparency.”