Customer Rights |
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The El Paso Water Utilities Public Service Board has complete power to set water rates and spend water revenues as they please. There is no process for customer input, protest or appeal.
I met the PSB President/CEO at a social function shortly after the PSB had purchased Painted Dunes Golf Course. I asked him why water customers had to give up their yards while the water company used customer money and water to purchase and irrigate a twenty seven hole golf course. The conversation ended when he told me to go to hell.
I wrote a number of letters to city officials to demand accountability. No action was taken. City manager Joyce Wilson says that "Under the state law, the management and control of the PSB is vested in the board of trustees and neither the Council nor I have any control over their actions."6
So I wrote letters to the editors and ran several full page ads in local newspapers to protest the lack of customer rights. The PSB President/CEO suggested that we take the issue to the Paso Del Norte Group (PDNG) or the Camber of Commerce (COC).1 Most water customers can't afford full page ads in the local newspapers. Therefore most water customers have no rights at all. However, if you can afford to spend over $20,000 to run such ads, the President/CEO will arrange an audience with the PDN or the COC.
PDNG notified the mayor that he was not required to attend.3The President/CEO of the PSB set the agenda.4 I asked to place two items on the agenda5 but the request was denied. The PDNG took no action. There are no minutes of the meeting.
There is a simple solution to this blatant customer abuse. The City Council can pass an ordinance to surrender their jurisdiction over billing rates to the State of Texas. The State of Texas will insure that customers are billed for cost of service. The PSB will no longer be able to bill for golf courses and economic subsidies to members of the Chamber of Commerce and the Paso Del Norte Group. The PSB would be regulated like all other utilities in the State of Texas and water customers would have a voice in water rates as well as a right of protest and appeal.
1)PDNG_PG1
2)PDNG_PG2
3)PDNG_PG3
4)PDNG_PG4
5)PDNG_PG5, PDNG_PG6, PDNG_PG7, PDNG_PG8
6) Letter from City Manager 1-27,2009
