Assemblyman Phil Goldfeder (D-Ozone Park) is pushing for a full audit of the city’s Department of Environmental Protection and Water Board after what he calls a “drastic” rise in water rates and disputed bills.
“Our water rates – which are determined by a select few – have continued to drastically climb year after year for hardworking Queens families,” Goldfeder said. “What little trans- parency is offered now is not enough. Our families deserve to know where their money is going and if it is being spent wisely.”
This year, water rates are scheduled to rise 7 percent.
Despite public hearings throughout the city, Goldfeder said citizens really have no input on the annual hikes.
“Overwhelmingly the community and the people are against it. And every year the water rate goes up,” he said.
According to Goldfeder, an increase of 78 percent since 2005 needs to be explained. He wants City Comptroller John Liu to investigate and tell residents where that extra money is going.
“We’re getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of accountability,” he said.
Goldfeder has tussled with the DEP and Water Board before.
At a public hearing in Queens this spring, he told members of the board directly that he was introducing legislation to cap rate increases by 4 percent each year.
In June, he attacked it from a different angle.
He pushed legislation that would change how Water Board members are appointed.
Currently, the mayor names all seven members of the body responsible for setting water rates.
Instead, Goldfeder wants the city’s public advocate, City Council speaker and comptroller to each be responsible for one of those appointees—although this would still let the mayor appoint a majority.
A comptroller’s audit would just be one more salvo in the Assemblyman’s attack.
But it would also address an issue of water bills that have drastically spiked for one quar- ter and then returned to normal.
Goldfeder said that he’s received 10 to 15 calls in the last months about this.
Residents say that for one bill, the DEP says water usage doubles, triples, quadruples or more—but the very next month it’s back to normal.
The DEP has given a number of reasons for these outlying water bills.
Multiple residents have been told they had a leak despite their cries that there was no such problem.
In December, George Russo of Richmond Hill told The Forum he received a $4,022 bill in the first quarter of 2010—more than five times his normal cost.
In that case, the DEP said he had been un- dercharged for his water usage for years and a newly installed electronic gauge compensated with the massively increased fee.
But after that one-time spike, Russo’s bills returned to his normal $700 range.
Goldfeder wants this investigated too.
“To me it seems like it’s from the new tech- nology,” he said, referring to the automated readers the DEP is installing. “They’re clearly not working as they’re intended to.”
Goldfeder said he’s spoken to Liu about the possible audit and he seemed interested.
The comptroller’s office gave no concrete answer if they would take on the audit and did not return a request for comment by press time.
By Jeremiah Dobruck
j.dobruck@theforumnewsgroup.com
