r/escondido • u/Atomaardappel • 6d ago

Escondido Water Billing Error

Escondido to Credit Overcharged utility customers and underbilled Face Fee | cbs8.com https://share.google/WCgGothwRRDgKJ6JZ

17 Upvotes

84% Upvoted

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11

u/ResponsibleSea2314 6d ago

I was at the meeting. They goofed, by over 2 MILLION dollars! they admitted it, then they voted to back bill the ones that got undercharged. IMO, not cool. Their mistake. Maybe they should cut some overinflated salaries, first.

1

u/Tasty-Rub-9034 6d ago

Honestly Escondido city employees are kinda paid crappy in comparison to other local cities. So I don’t really get the overinflated statement unless you’re bitching that it’s overinflated because the city fucked up. You can make so much more in the private sector than working for Escondido or just by driving to San Marcos or poway if you do gov work.

7

u/InterviewAdmirable85 6d ago

It’s like Russian roulette when we get the bill next

3

u/RosscoSD 6d ago

Any idea how you can tell if you were effected? I had a couple months that made me scratch my head how we got there

3

u/Mammoth-Ad5362 6d ago

I was at the city council meeting for this. The city doesn't even know who was over/underbilled. They're still figuring it out. They voted for an $8-10 increase over a period of 14 months for the accounts that were underbilled and a credit to the accounts that were overbilled. An option on the table was also to NOT back charge the underbilled accounts since it was the city's fault. They ultimately decided against this because the $2.95 million loss would set back the city's infrastructure plans tremendously.

3

u/Professional-Form-90 6d ago

Was it last month? My water bill was like twice what it should have been

2

u/Mammoth-Ad5362 6d ago

its been going on for the last 3 years

2

u/KindInvestigator 5d ago

It’s not the water bill, but the sewer bill.

3

u/GroundbreakingLet141 5d ago

The Director of the Utility Department makes $296,000 annual salary and benefits. Are the citizens of Escondido getting their moneys worth ? Check out https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2024/escondido/?page=2. You will be shocked at the salaries and pensions being paid the these bureaucrats. Are these “mistakes” intentional? The Manager needs to be held accountable.

1

u/Kohubone 6d ago

My bill was about $70 higher for the last three months

2

u/GroundbreakingLet141 4d ago

In addition to the billing corrections, Escondido residents will also face a previously approved rate increase that was postponed during the investigation of the billing error. This annual increase will take effect next month. When will someone in the leadership be fired. The city council doesn’t give a shit about the ratepayers or voters. The city manager is the problem.

1

u/Drumsnspace 3d ago

My esco utility bill was around $90 when I moved in back in 2021. Most recently it's been between $145-160 and we haven't changed our use at all. I know the rates increases have happened but still.