Reply
Sun 30 Oct, 2005 11:46 am
Quote:The city of Santa Fe is threatening to cut off a widow's water service because her late husband failed to pay their sewer and garbage-collection bills for some 20 years.
Kathleen Martinez's combined water, sewer and garbage bill stands at $12,201.83 -- with more than $9,000 in finance charges.
Ok so her unemployed husbanddidn't pay the sewer bill for 20 years, cutting off her water seems fair.
Quote:On the advice of the Water Division, she was paying an extra $50 each month on her water, sewer and refuse bill in hopes of paying off her debt. But the amount kept getting larger and about two months ago, she said, the city sent her a cut-off notice.
Martinez said she realized only two weeks ago that the bill was for sewage and garbage -- not water.
Quote:The billing director said he sympathizes with Martinez, especially because the city's finance charges of 18 percent a year add an extra $180 to her bill every month. Schmiedicke said the department recently hired some new people for its collection staff, so they are concentrating on people with overdue bills. Martinez's $12,000 bill, he said, is probably the largest.
Martinez, who works as a parking attendant for a valet-parking firm, said she has tried to get the city to waive the interest charges on her bill ``and let me pay what I owe and start all over again,'' but she has been refused. She said she is considering paying $50 to appeal the matter to a hearing officer, but is afraid that going public might jeopardize her chances.
http://www.freenewmexican.com/news/34366.html
Going public is the best thing she can do.
What is the city doing charging 18% interest to a widow when the prime rate was down below 5%? I doubt too many people in the city will support cutting off her water.
Her husband didn't pay the bill. She has tried to keep up but the interest is what is killing her. This is not some dead beat trying to get out of paying her bill at all.
I would kill her dog if she don't pay.
edgarblythe wrote:I would kill her dog if she don't pay.
That sounds so evil edgar.
Have we lost all reason..............???
No, I think edgar is right. Just to send a little message, ya know? Like Don Vito Correleon. The mob usually gets its vig, after all.
she has a chihuahua, ain't a real dog anyway.
I don't get it. In my city, they would cut off your water or your trash collection if you didn't pay for, oh, two months....
It's a shame that this city is not trying to work with her on this one. I think it is their fault for not monitoring overdue bills and allowing this one to get so large. It looks as if she is making an effort to try and pay it offÂ…so why shut off her water? I hope the media coverage will make the city rethink their decision.
I think they could kill her dog only after she allowed it to viciously bite the city treasurer.
What I am getting to is it sounds like bad city record keeping to me, lousy department purview. Or did he not just pay once and somehow it blossomed?
The town of Corleone would have some comment, I'm sure.
They had a history of knowing how to take care of things, not.
I wonder if everyone in Santa Fe even realizes that they're paying that exorbitant 18% rate. Dat's comin' close to what the leg-breakers charge for a loan around here. Getting this story out into the open might benefit not only Senora Martinez but the entire city in the long run.
I guess I'll be quiet while I read Dys' link. <always talk before reading, I get ahead that way>
Ok, I read it. 20 years.
You would think citizens of Santa Fe would gather coyotes, whatever, to gnaw at the department of water-sewer gases.
She would have been alerted long earlier if water was shut off in 1985.
So, they're shutting off water because the trash collectors never stopped?
Rereading again..
Combo bill.. so it should be the same department? Does one pay with two or three checks?
In my city, water and sewer are together and trash collection is a separate bill.
City seems to be looking for a ride for its own failing.
I'm wondering if there is possibly some kind of statute of limitations that could exempt her from paying this debt.
I believe in the light of so much bad publicity they will relent and do the right thing.
it's a rule goddamnit and rules have to be followed. Y'all sound like a buncha activists trying to change the rules.
I picture this room with little tiny yellow stick ons re who has and hasn't paid for their trash collection...
Stumble It!
Tweet This
Bookmark on Delicious
Share on Facebook
Share on MySpace