Statesboro City Council is considering new rules that set special conditions on city employees, city elected officials and their relatives obtaining adjustments to their water and sewer bills.

“No employee of the City of Statesboro or a member of the employee’s household or immediate family shall be granted an exemption or adjustment … without the written consent of the City Manager,” states the list of billing procedures attached to the proposed ordinance. Different requirements would apply to officials such as the manager or city clerk, and to the mayor and council.

The ordinance presented to the council Tuesday by interim City Manager Robert Cheshire has broader content than just that. Rules attached to the proposed new city law define procedures to govern how customers in general get a reduction after a water leak. The proposal also allows for setting up a payment plan and getting an exemption from a cutoff of service in hardship cases.

A committee including the Water and Wastewater Department director and assistant director, the Natural Gas Department director, the city clerk and a billing clerk, Cheshire and City Attorney Alvin Leaphart developed the ordinance.

 “We felt like from some issues that had come up that we needed a better document, one that’s easier to interpret and a little more formal,” Cheshire told the council

Added approval layer

But the rules he read aloud as examples were aimed at creating layers of accountability when the city’s employees, its elected officials or their family members seek billing adjustments.

For officials appointed by the mayor and council, including the city manager, city clerk, city attorney and Municipal Court judge, as well as their households and immediate families to get a billing adjustment, the mayor’s written consent would be required.

For a billing adjustment for a City Council member, the mayor or members of their households or immediate families, the written consent of two other elected officials would be required.

“We have a policy in place already, but it just didn’t go over as many scenarios as we put in this one,” Cheshire said after Tuesday’s meeting.

Asked whether the rules regarding city employees reflect any problems that have occurred, Cheshire said any had been before his time as interim manager. He has held the interim assignment since June 2014.

In August 2013, the Statesboro Herald reported that South Georgia Realty LLC, owned in part by City Clerk Sue Starling’s son Sterling Starling, had accrued more than $6,000 in unpaid water and sewer bills over the course of several months. A citizen, Bill Thomas, who ran unsuccessfully for mayor later that year, had pointed out the debt during a council meeting.

At that time, South Georgia Realty LLC had been charged late fees but never a cutoff charge, and its water was not cut off, the Herald reported. South Georgia Realty paid off its outstanding debt when then-City Manager Frank Parker and City Council became aware of the balance, according to the 2013 story.

In a report issued at that time, Leaphart noted that two other apartment businesses had also been provided leniency with their bills. He said he didn’t believe city connections played any part in South Georgia Realty being given flexibility in payments.

Hardship vs. leaks

For customers in general, the proposed rules would specifically prohibit the city clerk and city manager from waiving penalties and collection charges in hardship cases.

Subject to specific limits, the city clerk would have authority to adjust water or sewer bills of residential customers who experience “loss of metered water beyond the customer's normal and reasonable control.”

“It’s for dealing with a leak,” Cheshire said. “Sometimes you’re able to find a leak, sometimes you’re not, and it just gives some very specific details on how that adjustment should be made, should it be factual that there is one.”

For confirmed leaks where the lost water does not go into the sewer system, the clerk would be required to reduce the sewer charge to the customer’s average charge for the three months prior to the excess metered consumption. Otherwise, the clerk would base the water charge on the average of the three months prior to the months of excess billing, but still bill the customer for half of the water loss. For leaks where the lost water enters the sewer system, only one credit adjustment would be allowed in 24 months.

Adjustments would be prohibited for water used in swimming pools or billed through an irrigation meter.

However, other types of adjustments would be possible on a recommendation by the clerk, investigated and approved by the city manager.

In hardship cases, the clerk could set up a payment plan to bring the account current within three monthly billing cycles, or the city manager could authorize a six-month payment plan, but only one in any two-year period.

The proposed ordinance and its attached regulations were part of City Council’s packet for Tuesday’s meeting, available through the “Mayor and Council” tab on the city’s website, www.statesboroga.gov

The council did not vote on the ordinance Tuesday, but only received it as a first reading. Council could now approve the ordinance by a motion and vote at the next regular meeting.

Al Hackle may be reached at (912) 489-9458.