By Joseph Goral
Staff Writer
jgoral@mihomepaper.com
LAKE ORION — The Lake Orion Village Council voted to amend a policy on waving fees and charges to address water and sewer billing disputes during its meeting on Monday.
The schedule of fees and charges adopted by the village council will not be waived, reduced or forgiven “except in accordance with this policy,” part of the revision states.
“This policy would be in keeping with our ordinances for the water and sewer systems,” Village Manager Darwin McClary said. “The water provisions specifically state that the village manager is responsible for determining if any adjustments to water bills are necessary.”
The policy had a fourth section added which says the village manager may proportionately reduce water or sanitary sewer commodity charges or late fees, penalties and interest only for three reasons after investigation.
The first reason is if independent, objective and verifiable information clearly indicates water did not enter a building served by the village’s water system, the second is if waste water did not enter the village’s sanitary sewer system from a building served by the village’s system and the third is if a faulty water meter caused an overcharge in a customer utility bill.
The section also states no free water or sanitary sewer service shall be provided to any customer without a finding from the village manager conforming with this section. Findings and determinations by the village manager under this section will be final, according to village documents.
The village manager is responsible for determining if any adjustments to water bills are necessary, according to McClary.
According to village documents, revisions for the policy come nearly two months after village council requested McClary reimburse the sewer portion of a resident’s bill, and directed McClary to create a policy for addressing future requests for reductions of water and sewer bills to be presented to the council. The bill was nearly $2,300.