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macgyversstuntdouble t1_ir9ta62 wrote

Reply to comment by mindfulminx in EXCLUSIVE: Maryland gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore owes $21,000 in delinquent Baltimore City water bills by mindfulminx

The takeaway I got was two-fold:

  1. DPW doesn't send outstanding bills to collections.
  2. DPW doesn't do anything special to alert the user that they are in arrears.

One of these is easy to fix (2) and likely would improve cash flow into the city.

The other (1) is arguably important, but DPW should address (2) before ruining people's credit, as there is no current mechanism to provide notice about an account's failure to make payment.

However, I expect (1) to be implemented without (2) because I've experienced the city's bureaucracy enough to know better.

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weahman t1_ir9u0h1 wrote

didnt someone pull and parse through the water bill data a few months ago?
I want to say they total the amount of $$ outstanding by larger entities that just single homes. It was a pretty large sum.

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macgyversstuntdouble t1_ir9v5cg wrote

You're probably thinking of this: https://www.baltimorebrew.com/2020/02/28/exclusive-baltimore-is-not-collecting-millions-of-dollars-from-commercial-water-users/

The billing rates for the the consultants running the water billing system are too high. $22M in 2020? Ouch.

It wouldn't surprise me that commercial users had larger outstanding balances. However, with the city needing money to fix its infrastructure, it is irresponsible of DPW and the city to fail to push for better returns on its billing strategies. Instead it will likely raise its water billing rate on those who do pay and ignore those who can pay but don't because that's easier than fixing actual obvious problems.

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logaboga t1_irampfv wrote

A logical solution that would improve the city? Heresy

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TheAzureMage t1_irf1wpn wrote

These seem like....really, really basic failings on the part of the city.

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