Opinions
Opinion: Do not raise water bills
- Details
- By Robert Gill
- Tuesday, August 23, 2011
- Hits: 389
The people of Flint cannot afford a 35 percent water rate increase and I am not going to stand by and watch them raise it. There are options other than raising the prices by such a huge rate. The mayor and city council need to show us that they have exhausted every other possibility before they pass this expense on to us. They need to prove that they can be aggressive and make necessary cuts to staff and hours before they expect us to pay so much for water.
The way that the customer service department is operated is completely ridiculous. I personally pay my bill online, which the city should be encouraging people to do. If more people paid their water bills on the internet or over the phone they could cut staff. They should offer a small discount to people that agree not to pay in person or that are willing to enroll in an automatic bill pay system like those used by other service providers.
In the past when I have gone to the office to pay the bill I could not believe how the office functioned. There are one or two cashiers that will only accept your payment if you have a current bill. If you do not have a copy of your most recent water bill, you are sent to another line to see someone to get a copy of your bill to take back to the cashier. If the cashier simply typed your address into her computer and entered your payment amount, they could stop paying the person who is sitting at the other line waiting to print up water bills for the people that didn't bring them.
Why not keep the customer service department open two days a week and let people pay with cash or a debit card at a kiosk or drop box on the other three days. If the department was only staffed two days a week this would save $125,000 every year (10 employees making $10 an hour working 16 hours instead of 40 hours a week).
I think Flint residents would be willing to drop off a payment or come down on only Monday or Tuesday to talk to a person about a problem or set up a payment plan in order to avoid paying 35 percent more every month.
This is only one solution. There are many more but it seems as though our elected officials have gone straight to raising prices instead of brainstorming ideas or thinking outside of the box.
Flint is a hard place to live.
The economy is bad and due to a lack of police most people do not feel safe in their homes. People are moving away because of the poor choices that the current and former administrations have made and a huge water rate increase is going to chase them away faster. We are paying more in taxes this year because of the Genesee Towers settlement and are receiving fewer services. Please don't let them raise our water rates without a fight.
Call or e-mail Mayor Dayne Walling (810 766-7346 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. ) and your city council person and tell them to figure out another way because you will not pay 35 percent more for water. Don't forget to remind them that it is an election year.
Potter Longway Neighborhood Association
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