Sewer Bill Sympathy

EDIT:  Bob Spiers has done a masterful job of comparing sewer rates between Vernon and Coldstream.
The link is here.   Wow! Look at the comparison!

R.J. Johnston's letter to the editor hit the newspaper June 24th, 2016.
As you read the letter, it helps to adopt a similar tongue-in-cheek stance as the author obviously employed when writing it...


"Can you feel sadness for Mark Sandberg as he wonders why his water bill is so high?

I guess he wasn't around when the regional district first decided to grab even more money from we, the sheep, that populate and pay for their whims and extravagant schemes all in the name of improvements.

Originally, we were told that we would never pay for one drop more than we used if we spent gobs of money on water meters.  Too many saved water so that plan was amended to add a basic charge.  So much for that.

"...property taxes are less than

 what I pay for the water bill!"

R.J.Johnston

We were charged a basic amount for sewer use by the City of Vernon.  It didn't take them long to discover that even more money can be squeezed from the population by charging for how much water you use in the winter months as your actual use would be just for household use, i.e. whatever came from the tap went down the sewer (of course we all buy bottled water).

Another dim light came on when the realization came to light that if you were a snowbird you wouldn't have a sewer bill at all.  Not fair, except the solution wasn't made for two or three years.

These water meters were to last 50 years.  Somewhere there may be a few meters that go slow, so let's replace them with another round of waste and change them.

When you actually can find the person in charge, you will be told the funds for this will come from infrastructure we have been paying all along.  Instead of that, why not just not charge that extra amount in the first place?  Wait:  it is so that he/she can justify their existence?

When I got my property tax notice, I found that the taxes are less than what I pay for the water bill!

In their minds, that is an anomaly and somehow will be fixed.  Do you think the water bill will be reduced?  Doubt it?  Last words of wisdom for Mark:  Be careful for what you wish for."
                      R.J. Johnston

It appears the Morning Star likes to "save" letters, so that same topic letters generally appear in the same issue...interesting then that the following letter to the editor hasn't been published:

"Wait until Mark Sandberg (first quarter sewer billing, June 1/16 letter to editor) learns this!

Add this to your complaint about your quarterly sewer invoices being based on the first quarter’s usage:

Did you know that your first quarter water meter reading isn’t actually for the months of January, February and March?

Meters are actually read sometime in early December, again in early February.  That’s the first quarter period on which your sewer charges are based for the entire year.

By reading your meter around the first week of December, the “consumption” includes all your family’s Christmas visitors!

And of course, all visitors over the festive season flush your toilets.

The Greater Vernon Water utility regularly and routinely overcharges for services they are not providing...quarterly base water rates are proof.

The North Okanagan’s elected officials allow this customer gouging to continue year after year."

"...probably more important to print a similar-length letter about a near-miss traffic event," chuckles Kia.

Yeah, that's it.

The second letter was submitted 22 days ago... 

  

Shitty Sewer Billing Tactics

Wait until Mark Sandberg learns that his sewer billing complaint includes his Christmas visitors!

But first his letter to the editor of June 1st:

"I write this letter as a concerned person of all of the homeowners and business owners in Vernon.  This is written to warn you of the possible taking of your hard-earned money by the City of Vernon.

I am not sure if anyone noticed the little blurb at the bottom of the quarterly utilities invoice for the first three months of the year.  It states, "Sewer charges are based..."

It seems the city bases its billing of the residential sewer at $2.45 on the first three months and then automatically bills you the same amount every quarter.  What you may not know is, if you had a leak, or used more water than normal in those months, you will be charged that amount on all further bills regardless of how much water you actually use.

This means if, as in my case, a person is charged $90, and even if you never used another drop of water the remaining nine months of the year, the city will continue to charge you $90.  In essence, they will be billing you for services not used.

As the majority of people are not aware of this, they may in face pay hundreds of dollars more a year than they should be for their quarterly utilities.

"Meaning they are over charging for services

they are not providing.

Even if I use less water

 they still continue to charge me the same."

Let me further clarify.  My quarterly invoice for two years has been just over $200 for each of the three-month periods.  Now according to the city, because I have supposedly used more water (the meter is to be tested), they are billing me more than $300.  They say I have a leak and all of the water in the house has been looked at and there are no leaks, thus the reason the meter will be tested for accuracy.

But because they billed me $90 for this quarter, regardless of if I use any water, they automatically bill the same amount for each quarter.  So if I left Canada for the rest of the year, my bill is not based on actual usage but based on the first quarter.  Meaning they are over charging for services they are not providing.  Even if I use less water they still continue to charge me the same.

Obviously this is not a fair system.  So I wonder how many people get over charged on every quarters(sic) utilities invoice when he city is basing your usage on a guess rather than facts?

So if you had a leak or used more water in the first three months, and will never use that amount again, be prepared to have your money taken for no just cause.

To me the city should be fair.  I have paid around $20 for this same cost for each of the quarterly utilities invoices in the previous two years.  Now the city says, no matter how much water I use, my sewer fee stays at $90.  When my water usage goes down, so should my cost for my sewer usage.

The city does not believe in this and thus, consumer beware.  Your city may be bleeding your pockets for the services it never provided you."
       Mark Sandberg

"The alternative is to celebrate Christmas with your relatives in November," suggests Kia.


A somewhat related letter to the editor from Bill and Elaine Dunsmore had a suggestion:


"We applaud Vernon Mayor Akbal Mund's metaphor that city hall should run like a business.

Now if he will just extend this logic to include dividends (tax rebates), we would be overwhelmed.

Given the fact that commercial permit activity has grown by more than 2,000 per cent -- $833,500 during the first four months of 2015 to $22.9 million this year (Morning Star, May 27), we feel the investors (taxpayers) could use a dividend (tax rebate)."
     Bill and Elaine Dunsmore

"The City may know what a metaphor is," says Kia, "but they don't know the definition of 'fairness'; it isn't in their vocabulary."



Elected officials are mere puppets of the bureaucracy.