If there is one bill Coulterville resident Jim Rhodes is going to pay, it is his local water and sewer bill.
So, you can imagine his surprise when he got a letter from Mariposa County Public Works earlier this month saying he was delinquent in payments by $1,004 for two properties he owns in Coulterville.
The letter said the delinquent fees would be added to his property tax bill.
A hearing is set for July 14 for the Mariposa County Board of Supervisors to review delinquent fees for utility districts in Coulterville, Don Pedro, Mariposa Pines, Wawona and Yosemite West.
A total of 94 residents in those districts owe a total of $18,540.
One homeowner in Coulterville owes as much as $4,500, but many of the people on the list own undeveloped property in the districts and haven’t paid a utility standby fee of $30.
Rhodes said he had been on automatic payment of his water bill for at least a year through a company called Paystar.
When he contacted Paystar, Rhodes said, the company told him the county records show he didn’t owe anything.
“The ball is in your court,” Rhodes told the supervisors last week. “The flaw is in whatever system you’re using.”
Rhodes was furious about the confusion and what he sees as the implied threat of a lien on his property for non-payment. He wonders if the county has been getting the correct amount from rate payers.
It stings all the more because four of the districts — Coulterville, Don Pedro, Mariposa Pines and Yosemite West — are being asked to approve massive rate hikes due to years of deferred maintenance and the small number of rate payers supporting the utility.
“This is your problem and you need to fix it,” Rhodes wrote in a July 4 email to county supervisors. “I am grievously concerned that you would manufacture an issue just to get a lien on our property.”
Rhodes was still fuming when he spoke last week to the Mariposa Gazette.
“This is outrageous. What are they going to do, take my property like they did to Cox?” Rhodes said, referencing Jerry Cox, who lost his property after it was cited for multiple code compliance issues.
After Rhodes complained to the board of supervisors, county officials told him the problem was with Paystar. By the next day, the county credited his account and Rhodes was taken off the delinquent list.
The Mariposa Gazette reached out to the county last week to see how many other people may have been incorrectly sent delinquent utility bill payments. By press time, no one with the county had responded to the inquiries.
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