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Authority advances shutoff policy, adopts hardship-adjustment rules and agrees to review homeowner’s billing appeal
Summary
Board members debated the fourth draft of a shutoff policy aimed at pursuing delinquent balances, adopted a goodwill-adjustment policy for hardship appeals, and asked staff to calculate a disputed bill for a Walnut Street property for review at the June meeting.
The Middletown Water Pollution Control Authority spent substantial time on May 7 debating a draft shutoff policy and adopting a formal financial-hardship (goodwill) adjustment procedure.
Board members discussed a fourth draft of a shutoff policy designed to pursue smaller delinquent balances and to provide an alternative to long, pendulous lien/foreclosure processes. The draft excludes tenant-based units from shutoff action and focuses primarily on owner-occupied properties. Several members urged a vote before July 1 to allow the policy to take effect for FY27 billing; others asked for the mayor’s input and for legal confirmation of lien and foreclosure steps.
The authority adopted a separate goodwill-adjustment policy to address individual customer hardship appeals. Under the policy, a customer must present evidence of hardship (medical documentation or extended unemployment), have been current on the account prior to the special condition, and make a good-faith payment equal to a minimum of 10% of the adjusted bill (not to exceed $3,000) before an appeal proceeds. The policy also restricts adjustments to owner-occupied residential properties and reserves discretion to review each appeal individually.
One homeowner, Riley McManus of 36 Walnut Street, asked the board to correct an October–January bill that staff said showed 9,700 cubic feet of usage — more than double the property’s historical quarters despite reduced occupancy. McManus told the board he paid the bill to avoid delinquency and asked the authority to correct usage to a historical average. Staff explained the standard unexplained-usage adjustment: staff averages three prior billing periods and then proposes splitting the difference between the anomaly and the average; staff said Jerry would calculate the adjustment and present the results at the June meeting.
"The policy that we have... we take an average of three months or three billing periods... the differential between your anomaly and the average usage is what we split," staff explained when outlining the calculation method. "The WPCA will entertain the goodwill adjustment to a customer's account with the understanding of the following items that have been addressed and are compliant," staff added when describing the hardship policy.
Next steps: the board asked staff to bring the shutoff policy back with any mayoral/legal input at the June meeting, to publish final hardship-appeal procedures and to have Jerry prepare the usage-calculation for the Walnut Street account before the June agenda.
