This stinks: County is owed $700,00 in unpaid sewer fees

Kaua’i County Finance Director Wally Rezentes Jr., told the county council last Thursday that many residential and commercial customers on Kaua’i are not paying their sewer bills.

Rezentes Jr., said the county is owed at least $700,000 in unpaid sewer fees, some non-payment accounts going back five years or more.

Rezentes said the $700,000 represents about 18 percent of the county’s annual $4 million in sewer fees.

The Finance Director told the council that the city of Honolulu and the island of Maui, where sewer fees are a province of the Water Department, have almost no delinquency problems.

But on the Big Island, where sewer fees are collected separately from the water bill,the same system in use here on Kaua’i, almost 30 percent of sewer customers are delinquent or aren’t paying at all.

Rezentes Jr. said the non-paying sewer customers have been around for years.

“There is a long-standing problem for the county in collections,” he noted.

But shifting collections to the Water Department, who could turn off the water service for non-paying sewer users, would give Kaua’i the financial hammer that is already in use in Honolulu and on Maui, according to the Finance Director.

“Their system provides them with more leverage. On Kaua’i it is separate billings,” he said.

Rezentes Jr. told the council that’s why Administration is looking into shifting the collection burden to the Water Department.

“We have already sought and received a legal opinion from the county attorney saying we can do this (legally),” Rezentes Jr., noted.

Such action would likely require a new ordinance and some fee arrangement with the folks at the Water Department to cover their additional duties.

Residential customers pay a flat fee of $38 per month, and commercial accounts are charged based on water usage.