An error led to low bills in Opa-locka. Now they’re sky high and some are losing water.
A technical error was causing under-billing for water in Opa-locka until the problem was discovered late last year, according to Miami-Dade County officials, who say astronomical bills received by some properties recently are an attempt to recover payments for past use.
Since the New Year, some residents have had their water shut off because owners haven’t paid the bills, according to multiple owners and an attorney who represents about 30,000 Opa-locka residents in a class action lawsuit against the city for past over-billing and fraud.
“There are no words to describe how ridiculous it is that the county and city officials made a mistake and now they want to impose misery and unsafe health conditions all throughout the city of Opa-locka,” said attorney Michael Pizzi. “The homeowners, the children, the seniors should not have to pay the price for mistakes that the county or the city made.”
Douglas Yoder, the deputy director of the county’s water and sewer department, which handles billing for Opa-locka, said the problem was related to software that converts the volume of water used into a dollar amount.
Yoder said the issue may have occurred as accounts were being transferred from the city to the county over the past couple years, but he said he wasn’t sure when it started or how many accounts were affected.
“In this particular case, it was understating the amount of water that’s being used,” he said. “Under our rules, if an error like that is made, the water was still used and so it really has to be paid for.”
The bills in some cases have been eye-popping.
At the Lakeview apartments on Northwest 135th Street near 24th Avenue, which consist of 112 units across two buildings, monthly water bills in November and December totaled around $2,000, according to Pizzi.
That’s why the January bills were so shocking: over $135,000 between the two buildings.
“Literally, out of nowhere, they received bills of a combined $140,000 with no increase in consumption and no explanation,” Pizzi wrote Thursday in an email to officials from Opa-locka and Miami-Dade County. “You are forcing these citizens to go to court to survive.”
On Friday, the apartment complex’s owners filed a lawsuit against the city and county, saying officials had threatened to turn off their water if they didn’t pay the massive bill, “endangering the health and safety of hundreds of residents.”
Aimee Martinez, the head of the water and sewer department’s retail customer service division, said she believes the Lakeview apartments still have several weeks before their water will be shut off. She said customers should contact the county to work out payment plans and aren’t necessarily expected to pay the entire bills all at once.
Martinez said owners typically receive two sets of notices for unpaid bills about 30 days apart, and then hangers are placed on tenants’ doors warning of an impending shutoff. Two weeks after that, water service can be disconnected.
“If they don’t call us and at least have a discussion with us about paying the bill, then ultimately it will be disconnected,” Martinez said.
Yoder said county officials spoke with the owner of the Lakeview apartments on Friday about making an initial payment and about a payment plan going forward.
Martinez said she doesn’t believe the apartments are being over-billed.
“They were notified of the corrections that were being made and they were offered a contact to call so we could explain the change in the bill amount,” Martinez said.
But Pizzi disputed that owners have been properly notified of the software error or that they can work out payment plans for unusually high bills. If there was a problem, he said, the county should have put a moratorium on turning off water “until they had some meetings and came up with a way to deal with this crisis.”
“The only thing they have done is sent turn-off notices and turned off the water,” Pizzi said.
Elsewhere in Opa-locka, Raul Fernandez, who owns several properties in the city, said he has continued to deal with wildly fluctuating bills since the county took over the process.
The water was shut off this week at an eight-unit building he owns on Northwest 132nd Terrace, where he says bills have spiked inexplicably in recent years despite no apparent leaks — from $464 in January 2016 to $1,084 in April 2017 to over $3,000 in October 2019.
“How can eight units spend $3,000 of water a month? It’s impossible,” Fernandez told the Herald. “Either [officials are] stealing money or they’re incompetent as hell. Either way, it’s not good for the citizens of Opa-locka.”
Fernandez filed an amended lawsuit Friday against the city and county, demanding that the water at five of his properties not be turned off. Three of the properties have been added to a case he initially brought last month.
Martinez said the county shut off the water at Fernandez’s 132nd Terrace property this week because a payment hadn’t been made since November. The water has since been turned back on, officials said, possibly by a resident but not with the county’s authorization.
Among the properties facing the prospect of disconnected water is the New Fellowship Baptist Church. In a Jan. 3 letter, the city of Opa-locka said the church hasn’t made a water payment since March 2019 and owes over $9,000.
“If we do not receive payment in full or hear from you within 15 business days ... we will have no choice but to disconnect water and sewer services,” the notice reads.
In an email Wednesday to the city’s attorneys in the ongoing class action, a lawyer for the plaintiffs said the church’s bills, along with other water bills in Opa-locka, are in dispute. He suggested a court hearing be held to discuss the issue.
The church “received the same outsized bills as many others in Opa Locka,” attorney David Reiner wrote. “Is it the City’s position that, in the mist of the lawsuit challenging the validity of these bills, the City can still move to collect these water bills under threat of termination of service?”
Representatives for the city declined to comment on particular billing concerns, citing pending litigation.
“However, please note that the City of Opa-locka contracted with Miami-Dade County Water & Sewer in 2017 to replace water meters and manage billing,” Mayor Matthew Pigatt said in an email. “This is a substantial change that is currently in process to ensure accuracy for all of our residents and property owners. We ask for patience as we work together to ensure fair, transparent, and accurate billing.”
Martinez and Yoder said Friday that they would work to respond to detailed questions from the Herald about the exact nature, timing and scope of the problem, how owners were notified of it, and how the county has been able to obtain accurate calculations of how much money is now owed for past use.
Last April, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatrice Butchko certified a class of current and former Opa-locka water users seeking payback for past fraud and waste, including homeowners who testified about monthly bills exceeding $1,000 based on estimates as opposed to actual meter readings. The city is appealing the class certification ruling.
Pizzi has suggested damages could cost the cash-strapped city more than $30 million dating back to 2012.
A long history of malfeasance in the city’s water system has bred mistrust among residents and property owners that remains strong today. In 2016, Opa-locka relinquished control of the billing system amid reports of rampant corruption and overcharging, including employees shaking down residents for cash and bills being waived for politically connected customers. Seven people have since pleaded guilty in a bribery scheme uncovered by the FBI.
The city’s water accounts were transferred to the county over a two-year period and faulty meters were replaced. Under a contract between them, Opa-locka is paying off millions of dollars in debt for water it bought from the county.
But problems have persisted. In October 2018, then-City Manager Newall Daughtrey was fired after allegedly trying to file liens against several dozen properties with outstanding water bills of $10,000 or higher. Among the properties was then-Mayor Myra Taylor’s private school, which owed more than $100,000 in unpaid water bills.
Daughtrey filed a whistle-blower lawsuit against the city, saying in an affidavit that he was fired for telling officials that the “’friends and family policy’ on water collections and corrupt management of the water billing system that gave a free ride to wealthy individuals and companies would result in people ‘going to jail.’”
Another whistle-blower suit came this past September, when an Opa-locka employee responsible for reading water meters, Ambrose Obasi, said city staff members have intentionally falsified billing records to overcharge residents for over a decade. Obasi claims his job was threatened when he complained to superiors.
The latest questions about water billing in Opa-locka and the county’s role in overseeing it come as lawmakers consider new bills in the Florida House and Senate that could force the city to vote on whether to dissolve and become an unincorporated area of Miami-Dade.
Only residents have the power to dissolve their own city under the county’s home rule charter, but the state’s Joint Legislative Auditing Committee — which received a scathing report about fraud and mismanagement in Opa-locka in June — is pushing for legislation that would force any municipality to vote on dissolution if certain criteria are met.
Former Gov. Rick Scott declared a state of financial emergency in Opa-locka in 2016 and appointed a board to oversee the city’s spending. The board remains in place today.
This story was originally published January 19, 2020 at 6:30 AM.