When St. Joseph residents received their sewer bills this week, they were in for a surprise.
The amount they owed the village was higher than they initially anticipated.
For the December bill, St. Joseph residents were billed for three months worth of sewer service instead of their usual two months.
The bills covered the months of August, September and October.
The village made the decision to bill for three months because they were behind in sewer billing after a former village employee, Laura Boyd, was charged with stealing from the village in June. The village’s auditor wanted the billing caught up before the end of the year.
Boyd was in charge of collecting sewer payments. She allegedly did not deposit cash payments for the sewer bills. The computer records showed the bills were paid in full. She was fired in October 2017.
After the firing, the Champaign County Sheriff’s Department found that between 2011 and 2017, approximately $77,600 could not be accounted for. Boyd has denied any wrongdoing and the court case is ongoing.
Residents had expressed frustration that the village decided to bill for three months around Christmas. The amount they were billed seemed to be more than they would expect to be billed for three months.
Mayor Tami Fruhling-Voges said that the village apologized for the confusion.
“We know with the Christmas holiday it is a little bit of a hardship to have the extra month added onto their bill,” she said, “so we are going to extend the due date on the current bill to January 19th.”
Fruhling-Voges said if people have questions regarding their sewer bills, they should call the village office with their name and address. Village office workers can pull their information and schedule a time for the resident to come in so the village can explain their bill to them
“If there are any questions, we highly recommend you bring your bill into the office and we will work through it with you to make sure the proper units were used to figure it,” Fruhling-Voges said.
The village will reschedule the automatic payments to come out of resident’s accounts on Jan. 19.
The village also heard from a property owner at its December board meeting who was told that his tenant did not pay their sewer bills and he was now responsible for the balance.
James Moore said he had lived in St. Joseph for 10 years and recently relocated to Alabama. He rented his home on Winston Drive last year, and he was recently informed there was a large amount on the home’s sewer bill because the tenant did not pay their bill.
Moore asked why he was responsible for the bill.
“No one called for a whole year to tell me,” Moore said.
Clerk Tiffany McElroy-Smetzer said that when a property owner rents their home, it is their responsibility to let the village know.
Moore said he thought the village should take a deposit when someone they do not know comes in to set up their sewer account.
McElroy-Smetzer said it is in the village’s ordinances that they do not take deposits.
Moore argued that the village should tell landlords they are responsible for the sewer bills of their tenants if they are not paid.
McElroy-Smetzer said that the former employee who was in charge of the sewer accounts should have notified Moore.
The village said they would look into the situation.
The village ordinance regarding payment liability states that “the owner of the premises and the occupant thereof and the user of sewerage service, shall be jointly and severally liable to pay for the service on said premises, and the service is furnished to the premises by the village only upon the condition that the owner of the premises, occupant and user of the service, are jointly and severally liable therefor to the village. Bills shall be rendered to the user at the end of each two (2) month period and shall be payable within thirty (30) days after the date of the original bill. For any bills not paid by said due date, a penalty of ten percent (10%) of the amount of the charges for current services shall be added and become due.”
