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Resident urges city to explain thousands of water-billing adjustments and lien threats
Summary
A St. Petersburg resident told council that roughly 6,000 accounts have received post‑billing adjustments since September and asked the city to provide an explanation and legal counsel for affected residents facing liens.
A St. Petersburg resident told the council during open forum that thousands of customer accounts have been adjusted and that the city has provided no adequate explanation to affected residents.
Matt Widener, who identified his address as 1201 Eden Isle Drive, said he reviewed a prior committee meeting on the issue and concluded the city had not explained why approximately “6,000 accounts were adjusted since September.” He told the council, “there was exactly 0 explanation for why there are 6,000 accounts that are being adjusted.”
Widener provided additional figures and examples he said constituents had reported: he described about “3 thousand” of the adjustments as private-property adjustments and said roughly 3,000 were “overread adjustments.” He said he fielded emails and phone calls from residents who received large bills or lien notices, including a homeowner in Snell Isle who received a notice of a lien for tens of thousands of gallons of usage and a person who faced a withdrawal that left them unable to buy food. He told the council those residents had “no explanation” and, in at least one case, “no plumber out there.”
Widener urged the council to “hire counsel” under the city charter and to investigate, saying the issue affected families and that some residents could not pay the sudden charges. He asked council members to rewatch the committee meeting and look at the underlying data.
The council did not take action during open forum on the matter; Widener’s comments were delivered as part of the public comment period. No staff response or motion appears in the public record provided in the transcript excerpt.
