Chicago retirees see relief from shocking $80,000 water bill with no explanation
CHICAGO (CBS) – CBS 2 reported on the Chicago couple in their 70s saddled with an $80,000 water bill earlier this month.
After CBS 2 started asking questions, almost $70,000 of that bill was wiped away. So what happened?
A City of Chicago spokesperson wouldn't say, but city documents told a different story. CBS 2's Lauren Victory had the update.
In cell phone video and CBS 2 footage, Chicago Department of Water Management crews assured Andrea Garner things were working fine.
"You said the valves are working just fine?" Garner asked the crews.
"Yeah, the valves work," they told her.
They installed a new water meter anyway after CBS 2 raised the alarm to the city about her elderly parents and the $80,000 water bill that hit them right as they were about to sell their Roseland three-flat.
"It was like deer in headlights and a complete freeze of everything like a complete shock. What do we do?" Garner said on July 12.
By July 14, the city took off $69,352 from the bill.
"It was definitely a sigh of relief," Garner said.
The change was also frustrating. Garner received no explanation for the fix, though, to her, it's obvious.
"They're realizing that the error was either with their equipment or how the meter was reading accurate usage, so the problem lies there," Garner said.
It must have, because repair crews took her old water meter in for testing, and the results that just came back are confusing, to say the least.
A week-by-week log of meter readings showed zero water usage on some entries. Other times, the report came back at 6 million gallons used in a week.
That amount is equal to nine Olympic-sized swimming pools. Who goes through that much water in seven days?
Keep in mind that the Garner family has a three-unit building. The family said two of the apartments were often vacant.
What was also puzzling was an hourly log showing 4 million gallons used between 11 a.m. and noon one day in January. That would be the equivalent of 2 million pots of water for a pasta lunch. Garner's noodle isn't the only one about to burst.
A flabbergasted utility billing customer service representative called the scenario "impossible" in a conversation with a city employee.
Garner: "You're absolutely positive that there's no way we used $80,000 worth of water?"
Rep: "Yes ma'am."
Garner: "OK, and then…"
Rep: "I can clarify that: Do you know how much water that is, Ms. Linda?"
Garner: "A lake? An ocean?"
Rep: "Thank you. It's not an ocean. It could be a lake, now."
CBS 2 played the phone call for Ald. Gilbert Villegas (36th). In the end, Garner was told to be patient.
"Are we the city that works? That's a lot of bureaucracy there," Villegas said. "You would think that someone come in and maybe take it to the manager and say, 'Hey, there's a problem here. Let's figure this out.'"
Remember that the Garners' $80,000 balance eventually got knocked down to about $11,000, but the family's logs don't make sense. So how can their bills be valid?
"Why isn't there a system that kind of monitors, 'Hey, last month, you had a $600 bill. This month, you have a $5,000 bill?' Us, being proactive saying, 'Hey, what's going on over there?'" Villegas said.
That's one of many questions Villegas plans to ask at an Aug. 31 hearing about water bills. Garner plans to testify.
"Just fighting against a broken system. For me, it is much bigger than my parents' account," Garner said.
A city spokesperson said she couldn't comment on individual cases but said the Department of Finance is working with the customer.
The Garners said don't know what that means. They said they still don't have an answer about their bill for the tens of millions of gallons recorded on their account.