Agency suggests ways to repay for improper billing

By Mike Heine/The Week

(Published Feb. 21, 2007, 1:38 p.m.)

The Public Service Commission wants to know how the village of Darien will pay back $80,000 to customers mistakenly billed in 2006 for maintaining fire hydrants.

This issue arose when the village auditor noticed that the village did not seek approval from the PSC to transfer the costs of fire protection from property tax bills onto utility bills.

Village officials, including village Clerk Connie Machi and village President Robert Wenzel, called the situation an honest mistake.

But a Feb. 16 letter to the village from a PSC assistant administrator reads, in part: "In the future, it is important that the utility obtain approval from the commission prior to implementing these types of changes."

The letter suggests ways to refund water customers and indicates the PSC wants confirmation the village is now charging in accordance with an approved rate structure.

Among ways suggested by the PSC for refunding customers is sending refund checks after borrowing from other accounts or a bank or providing customers a credit on their water bills.

Refunds would have to include customers who have moved, the letter reads.

But refunding the money would be a financial hardship for the village since it did not budget those funds in 2006 or in 2007, Machi wrote the PSC and told a Janesville Gazette reporter.

The village board took no action Monday. Wenzel said the village's auditor and financial advisor are looking into the issue, and it probably will come back to the finance committee within a month, he said.

It's unclear how the village will pay for fire protection services in 2007. Because it had planned on the utility including the costs on utility bills, the village did not include those costs in the property tax levy, Wenzel said.

The utility is losing $7,496 a month.

"Before we make any decision on this, we have to get all of this coordinated together so we can make the right decision to refund this money," Wenzel said after the meeting.

During the meeting, Supervisor Shane Spoo said he was disappointed by the mistake, which has prompted about 30 people to call him with complaints.

He asked why Machi earlier told a Gazette reporter that she hadn't received any complaints about the added charge.

"From the beginning, when I was elected, I wanted to let (voters) know that we would try to run this village like a business," Spoo said. "It needs to be run like a business. When something like this happens, it's really sad, and people call me up.

"There were comments in the paper that we (the village) haven't gotten any complaints. In my opinion, find me someone that hasn't had a complaint."

The PSC letter also says that, "It is also our understanding that there have been many complaints and inquires from water customers."

Machi said after the meeting that she hadn't received any complaints about the mistake itself. She said people had general complaints about fee increases to their water bills.

Wenzel said customers were notified of the charge last year through a letter and a public hearing, and it shouldn't have been a surprise.

See related story from The Janesville Gazette:

http://www.gazetteextra.com/water021107.as