The Water Bill Blues Continue

A condo owner who estimated her water bills would be $1,050 over 18 months wound up getting billed $15,000

By Mark E. Vogler

SAUGUS – Up until a year and a half ago, Deborah Fauci said, she was paying a water bill of about $350 every six months. But her last three water bills were $6,800, $5,800 and $2,900 – quite excessive for her two-bedroom condo on Sheffield Way, Fauci complained at Tuesday night’s (July 14) Board of Selectmen’s meeting.

“I’m standing here tonight with three water bills totaling over $15,000,” Fauci said during a citizen comment period.

“And I’m demanding answers regarding the unacceptable delays in resolving our disputed water and sewer bills,” she said, reading from a prepared statement on her cell phone.

Fauci was the latest Saugus property owner to complain publicly about outrageously high water bills since Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree announced in April that the town was launching a comprehensive review using an outside auditing firm to investigate massive spikes in water bills. “Yet, weeks have turned into months, and residents are left completely in the dark. We have seen zero formal feedback, zero data, and zero transparent findings from this investigation,” Fauci said.

“While the administration claims it takes time to review the data, our bank accounts do not have the luxury of waiting forever,” she said.

“When residents follow the rules and apply for a formal abatement, we hit a wall of silence. The official Saugus Abatement Form states that the town has 90 days to act, or the application is legally ‘deemed denied’. This slow turnaround time is forcing residents into structural traps. It is an administrative bottleneck that forces families to either pay thousands for water they never used or face immediate penalties while waiting indefinitely for an investigation that has yielded no updates,” she said.

Fauci went on to complain about the financial burden and aggressive collection practices that she and others have been facing in recent months. “These bills are matching or exceeding monthly mortgage payments. This is a severe financial crisis for our working families and our seniors on fixed incomes,” Fauci said.

“Furthermore, the town’s practice of issuing property liens or pulling funds from mortgage escrows for disputed bills before a full investigation is completed is unjust and unacceptable. We need an immediate freeze on these aggressive enforcement actions while disputes are active,” she said. “We cannot tolerate an administrative process that stalls on relief but moves at lightning speed on penalties. I urge this body and the Town Manager to mandate an immediate interim update on the third-party water billing audit and to fast-track all pending abatements. Thank you.”

She also noted that she has reached out to other condo owners on Sheffield Way and none of them reported experiencing excessive water bills.

Fauci’s remarks prompted Board of Selectmen Vice Chair Anthony Cogliano to express his own frustrations about the potential for high water bills based on faulty water meters based on his own personal experience and feedback he’s received from Saugus home and business owners. He said he brought the issue up at the March 24 meeting, went ahead and filed several applications for abatement. Yet, several months have passed and nobody has bothered to contact Cogliano about the abatements or his concerns about astronomically high water bills based on inaccurate meter readings, he said.

“My frustration is if there are only 15 people in town who filed for an abatement, I’m four of them and I haven’t got a call yet,” Cogliano said.

“And since this came up, I got a phone call last week from a resident of Saugus whose water bill is $192,000. And it went from $325 to $192,000. That’s impossible, that someone’s water bill could go like that. I don’t care if there’s a leak, unless it’s flowing down the street, $192,000 is totally out of whack, and he seems to think that his next water bill will be outrageous as well,” he said. “The way we do our water bills, if people have to wait a year to find out there’s a problem on their property, that’s negligent on the town’s part, in my opinion. No one should have to wait a whole year to find out what their bill was last year. We’ve got to update our billing cycle even if we go quarterly. In my honest opinion, I think we should have monthly water bills.”

The town is in the process of replacing all of the water meters with new ones. Most of the problems involving citizen concerns about high water bills are based on the old meters, which are being replaced. But there are also some concerns about high water bills based on the use of new meters being installed. Town officials have said citizens can expect to see higher bills based on more accurate readings provided by the new meters.

The town manager assured Fauci and selectmen that he will be following up the concerns she expressed as well as the abatements which have been filed on water bills. “The system issues the bill,” Crabtree said. “Nobody is trying to rake anybody over the coals,” he said.

Selectmen Jeff Cicolini and Frank Federico expressed concerns about homeowners who have challenged their water bills based on the old meters to be given some relief until the town has determined whether the bills were based on accurate meter readings. “I don’t think it’s fair for the town to be asking for the full sum of money until we resolve the issue,” Federico said.

“Can we come up with a type of way they can pay a reasonable amount [of the water bill]?” Cicolini asked.

Crabtree said he would take the concerns expressed by Cicolini and Federico under advisement. “We’ll try to figure out legally what we can do,” Crabtree said.

Debra Fauci’s husband Michael pointed out a disparity in water bills based on meter readings between the condo and the three-bedroom ranch house he owns at 190 Essex St. “We just got a water bill at both properties,” Michael Fauci said. “And almost identical in usage between the two houses. One was $539 (the three-bedroom house) and the other was $2,800 (the condo). How? And why isn’t it being addressed by this gentleman right here, “he said, motioning to the town manager.

“Because this has been ongoing and yet you’re silent like you are on most things when it’s brought to your attention. And you know what I’m talking about,” he said, looking at Crabtree.

The town manager did not respond to the remarks.