In some ways, the city of San Diego is like the rest of us. Occasionally, we're all late making a payment. The difference in this case is the size of the late payment fee. The story from KPBS reporter Alan Ray.
Last winter, San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders was talking about putting new controls to improve the performance of the city's water and wastewater departments. That was when he was making the case for utility rate increases. It was also when the city failed to make a scheduled January 30th payment of nearly $1.6 million to the San Diego County Water Authority.
As many of us have, water department managers say they miscalculated the billing cycle, and they blame staff turnover.
The Union Tribune says the city wrote a letter of regret to the county, apologizing for the oversight, and asking the county to forgive the late fee of nearly $16,000. The county water board will consider forgiveness when it meets next month.
Over the last five years, the city had to pay nearly $45,000 in late payment fees, not counting the one in January.
