Hemelt: Stressed out St. John water bill concerns overflow at Council meeting

Published 12:03 am Saturday, February 2, 2019

Surprise, surprise, the topic of water meter failure, spiked billing and disconnect notices were, again, topics of discussion during the last St. John the Baptist Parish Council meeting.

The intensity, however, was ratcheted up as administrators outlined cutoff policies, councilmen passionately pleaded for constituents not to be cut off and the plight of overstressed billing personnel was discussed.

Councilman Kurt Becnel intensely told the story of a woman in his District who has stage 4 lung cancer and routinely visits MD Anderson Cancer Center for treatment.

According to Becnel, this older constituent regularly received water bills that averaged $60 a month.

“All of a sudden it jumped to $120 and $180,” Becnel said. “Then, they got nervous. One of her children said, ‘I’m going to pay the bill.’ He paid $180, and here it came again, $200, $240. Remember, this individual has stage 4 lung cancer. She is not going to get cut off. Why can’t y’all fix that bill to where that lady is paying a certain amount? That lady has been dealing with this for three years. This is ridiculous; it broke my heart.”

Becnel forcefully told administrators the woman would not be cut off, sharing the bill has now ballooned to more than $700.

“If we have got to go to the media, then we are going to go,” the District 1 representative said. “We’re strategizing right now and we have a plan together. How can y’all not fix that lady’s bill? I tell you what, in my district nobody is going to get disconnected if they can prove their bill just spikes and spikes with that stupid (bill) averaging. That’s the problem: Estimating and averaging. It’s very, very unfair.”

St. John Chief Financial Officer Robert Figuero Jr. took the brunt of Becnel’s concerns, as he did for the rest of the Council members who asked questions.

Figuero is the latest administrator tasked by Parish President Natalie Robottom with spearheading the parish throughout its water meter debacle.

Previous administrators left to pursue other career opportunities while others have been removed from the public spotlight.

Figuero, who has been with St. John for a little more than a year, said Becnel’s scenario is not the normal customer exchange and it’s his goal to facilitate a sit down with each person that has an unexplained bill and work out an understanding that leads to a payment plan.

“This is personal, and we understand that this is not going to be a one fit for everyone,” Figuero said. “What you’re explaining right now, it doesn’t sound normal. There is usually an explanation. Usually, when those ridiculous cases come, we usually find the reason.

“They are self explanatory.”

Figuero said disconnect notices are “specifically” going to residents that have received actual bills (not estimations), should have been paying their bills and are not paying them.

District 6 Councilman Larry Snyder said many residents want to pay their bills; they just can’t come up with $1,000.

“Those are the people I am really concerned about,” he said. “We need to help them out as much as we can, as far as putting them on a plan. We need to get them in and put some humanity with it. You’ve got to understand; these people are coming in begging. They don’t have very much. Some of them are going to be embarrassed. You need to treat them like I would treat my grand baby — with a soft glove.”

Council members have authorized St. John Parish to begin the bid process to install a new water meter system (and with it, consistent and accurate billing). We’ve been told the system could be complete by June of 2020.

Still, that means we are a year-and-a-half away from a permanent answer. You can bet the stress of billing — and its public spillover — will only continue, especially with an important political season right around the corner.

Stephen Hemelt is publisher and editor of L’OBSERVATEUR. He can be reached at 985-652-9545 or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.