No billing problems here? Yeah, right, Suffolk residents say

SUFFOLK

Some scoffed. Some laughed. Some did a little of both.

That was how many reacted this week when a city official said billing problems on thousands of utility accounts across Hampton Roads were not happening in Suffolk.

"My foot," said Jerry Varnell, a contractor who lives in northern Suffolk. "That's crazy."

Varnell was one of several residents who relayed stories of recent utility bill mix-ups, evidence they believed showed things were not quite right in Suffolk.

Officials on Friday maintained that the problems experienced elsewhere are not affecting Suffolk in any significant way.

"I'm not going to tell you we haven't had a single billing problem," said Craig Ziesemer, Suffolk's assistant director of public utilities. But those problems are relatively few, considering there are 26,000 accounts in Suffolk, Ziesemer said.

"I understand that other communities have much larger issues," he said.

The Hampton Roads Sanitation District reported that at least 32,000 accounts across Hampton Roads have experienced delayed bills since the cooperative switched software in July. As of earlier this month, about 5,700 of those accounts had not been billed since the switch, according to the district. The group handles about 460,000 accounts.

In Suffolk, Ray and Patti Bozman received a delinquent notice last week for a bill they said they never received. Ray Bozman, a radiologist, said he and his wife have never missed a utility bill in the nearly 18 years they've lived in Hampton Roads.

Randy Regan, an electrical engineer for NASA, received two bills two weeks ago on the same day, one for four months of service, the other for two months. The larger bill duplicated the smaller, he said.

Ted Henifin, the district's general manager, said the software issue delayed a small number of accounts in Suffolk. Most of the homes affected have a second water meter for lawn irrigation that forced the district to handle the accounts by hand, Henifin said. The problem caused delayed bills, not miscalculations in the billing, he said.

Suffolk fared better than other communities because it is the only city in Hampton Roads that has completely converted to the Sanitation District's billing system, Henifin said. Suffolk now coordinates billing with the district using only one customer database. Other localities have accounts on two databases, increasing the chance for billing errors, Henifin said.

Converting to the Sanitation District's billing system saved the city $5 million to $6 million to replace its own aging system, Ziesemer said. The move saves the city in mailing costs and staff time and will allow the city to get bills out faster and offer more online account services, said Al Moore, Suffolk's director of public utilities.

Hundreds complained last fall when they saw how much their utility bills rose because of higher rates. An extended billing cycle contributed to the bigger bills, and Moore said extra water consumption during a dry summer added to the burden.

Several residents challenged that explanation. Ross Norris requested copies of his bills for the past year after his last invoice said he tripled his normal water consumption in the fall.

"Somebody's dropping the ball somewhere," Norris said.

On Feb. 12, Mayor Linda Johnson attended a north Suffolk meeting of Riverfront residents who were concerned about their rising bills. Henifin and Moore helped resolve issues, Johnson said. Still, there are some bills Johnson has seen that seem inexplicably high.

"We know the rates changed. It still doesn't add up," Johnson said. "I feel like there's something somewhere, and we need to really keep plugging until we find what it really is."

Dave Forster, (757) 222-5563, dave.forster@pilotonline.com