Highland Park has a big problem with water bills.
Curt Guyette, an investigative reporter for the Michigan Democracy Watch Blog, which is run by the American Civil Liberties Union, reports that some Highland Park residents haven’t received water bills for as long as four years.
Now, they are getting four-figure and, in some cases, five-figure bills, Guyette reports.
Some wonder how they'll pay those big bills, and some are questioning if they're even accurate.
Guyette reports that city officials concede that things are in disarray, and they're working to correct the situation.
Guyette reports:
Cathy Square, the city’s administrator, said that operation of the city’s water department has been a problem for years. Infrequent billing, malfunctioning water meters and a staff that was largely made up of a series of temporary workers all contributed to creating a confusing mess that she’s still in the process of trying to clear up .
The bills that went out earlier this month, a job done under the direction of an outside contractor brought in to perform the task, was the first attempt to try and restore some sense of order to the system.
As City Council member Mamie Posey Moore said in an interview, “The first thing we needed to do was make sure that we could get a bill out to everyone who should be receiving one.”
