Council Agrees on Water Bill Extensions

In a rare compromise on a highly contentious issue, the City Council voted unanimously Monday to adopt into law an informal policy allowing administrators to provide extensions to residents who are having a hard time paying their water bills.

Both council members Joanne Baltierrez and Doude Wysbeek had opposed the ordinance because it exempted city employees from the same benefit as other residents. They changed their votes when that provision was dropped.

Members of the City Council, however, will now be barred from receiving extensions. The city will also be required to keep a log of the reasons given for extensions.

“Granting extensions has been past practice and now [the council] has incorporated that into the city code,” said acting city administrator Howard Miura.

The water bill issue erupted in October when a leaked city document revealed that Baltierrez had fallen several months behind in her utility payments. Unlike other residents who might not have been aware of the informal extension policy, Baltierrez’s water was never shut off after a one-month grace period.

In a move that they said was intended to restore the integrity of the council but that others contend was politically motivated, Mayor Raul Godinez II and Councilmen Jose Hernandez and Silverio Robledo voted in December to censure Baltierrez for failing to reject the preferential treatment.

Baltierrez insisted that she had done nothing illegal or unethical but acknowledged that the extensions gave the impression of impropriety.

In December, the council agreed that the informal practice should be written into law, but disagreed as to whether council members and other city employees should be allowed to request extensions themselves.

“It was never a deal breaker,” said Robledo about the provision exempting city employees from extensions. “At the end of the day that city employee will have to answer to the public.”