Residents press St. Petersburg council on water‑billing errors; pastor denounces new ICE policy

Two members of the public used the council's open forum to raise sharply worded concerns about city policies and practices.

Matt Weidner of 1201 Eden Isle Drive addressed the council about what he described as widespread unexplained water‑billing adjustments. "6,000 accounts were adjusted since September," Weidner said, adding that roughly "3,000 were private property" adjustments and "3,000 were over read adjustments." He described individual harms, including a resident who could not feed a child after hundreds of dollars were taken from an account and another facing lien notices for tens of thousands of gallons billed to a single home in Snell Isle. Weidner urged the council to "hire counsel" under the city charter to address the problem and said prior committee meetings he had watched offered no satisfactory explanation for the spike in adjustments.

Andy Oliver, pastor at Allendale United Methodist Church, criticized a new St. Petersburg Police Department directive instructing officers to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement when they encounter a subject with an administrative warrant. Oliver said administrative warrants differ from judicial warrants because they are issued by a federal agency rather than a judge and do not establish probable cause. He called the directive unconstitutional and warned it could lead to unlawful detentions, citing a large number of ICE entries in national databases. "This policy is unconstitutional white supremacist fascist trash," Oliver said, and told the audience he would ensure legal counsel and demand the city pay for rights violations if someone were unlawfully detained under the policy.

The chair thanked both speakers, closed open forum and moved into the scheduled report items; the transcript records no response from council members or staff to either speaker while they were at the podium.