Controller: Water agency failed to collect $161M in water bills

A snapshot of the city Water Revenue Bureau's records suggests that Philadelphia is owed about $161 million in delinquent bills, according to a report released yesterday by City Controller Alan Butkovitz.

Butkovitz's staff took the records from May 31 and spent five months studying them. They found more than 62,000 customer accounts that went unpaid for more than three months. Some accounts went 15 years without water service being turned off.

"I think they have to take seriously the idea that they have to maximize collections," Butkovitz said. "Other people, including many poor people, end up paying higher water rates to make up for people who are not paying anything."

For years, the Water Revenue Bureau's computer system kept records for only one year, erasing any history of water service termination or negotiations with customers to get payments.

New Revenue Commissioner Keith Richardson, in a letter to Butkovitz, said that his office started using a new computer system on Jan. 2 that solves that problem and will automatically refer delinquent accounts for action.

Richardson said his staff is still implementing the new system.

"We had to crawl and walk before we could start running," he said. "We had to take baby steps."

Butkovitz also found:

_ Federally owned properties in the city have unpaid water and sewer bills worth $1.3 million.

Richardson, in his letter, said the city has "limited authority" to force the federal government to pay its bills, so the bureau seeks negotiated settlements.

Butkovitz said that the Washington Post last month reported that Verizon cut off FBI wiretaps due to unpaid bills by that agency.

"This is America," Butkovitz said. "You have to pay your contracts and your bills."

_ The Water Revenue Bureau's former director of technical operations delayed installation in his home of an electronic water meter for nine years, phoning in his usage instead. The bureau now estimates that the employee, who resigned in August, under-reported his water use by $1,900.

Richardson wrote that his staff will work with the city Law Department to get that money paid.

_ One Day At A Time, a non-profit serving the homeless and people with addictions, had $276,011 in unpaid bills and penalties for 17 properties wiped off the city's books last July by order of the city solicitor's office.

Butkovitz said the bureau's records contain no explanation as to why the bills were waived.

Mel Wells, One Day At A Time's president, was surprised to hear that there was no explanation. Wells said that the nonprofit, started by his father, received promises of help with utility bills for years from city politicians. That help never came through, he said, so the nonprofit took its case last year to the city's Tax Review Board.

"We were giving up services for the city, using it for nonprofit purposes," Wells said. "When the city looked at it, they said these guys are saving lives." *