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Resident tells Pasadena council she has been double-billed on single water meter for decades
Summary
During public comment at the Oct. 21 Pasadena City Council meeting, Janet Harris said the city has been double-charging a single water meter on her duplex since 1992 and that a city attorney’s letter threatened further retroactive charges; she said she found no ordinance authorizing the practice and asked council to stop it.
Janet Harris told the Pasadena City Council on Oct. 21 that her residential duplex has been double-billed on a single water meter since 1992 and urged the council to stop the practice.
Harris said she received a letter from the city attorney that she described as accusatory and that the letter threatened to “triple charge my single water meter and back charge me 18 months.” She told the council she has been paying the bill for 33 years and said city staff and past council members have visited the duplex. “I've never hidden my duplex,” Harris said.
Harris said she researched the issue and found no city ordinance authorizing the city to double charge a single meter. “There's no city ordinance that gives the city the right to double charge a single water meter,” she said, and added that she believes “hundreds of homeowners with similar properties” may be affected.
The remarks came during the meeting’s public-comment period; the council did not take immediate action on Harris’s request during the Oct. 21 session. The mayor and staff did not provide a legal citation or ordinance number during the meeting when Harris asked for that authority.
Harris concluded by asking the council to “take care of your citizens” and to stop the practice. The council’s response in the meeting record is limited to the chair’s acknowledgment of her comment.
