Town Wants $300,000 From Prison For Water Overages

February 4, 2009

The Town of Century is looking to collect almost $300,000 from the Florida Department of Corrections for water bills the town says the state owes.

Under the town’s contract to provide water for the Century Correctional Institute, there is an added charge for water usage above 6 million gallons per month.

Mayor Freddie McCall says ongoing high water consumption by the prison has been somehow overlooked, and now the town wants the prison system to pay up a grand total of $298,751.54 in overusage charges dating back to January 2000.

The state did pay overusage charges totaling $18,362.38 for June, July, August and September of last year, McCall said. But they failed to pay the town’s bill for charges from January 2000 to May 2008.

“They’ve done admitted guilt because they sent me those checks,” McCall said of the four payments received from the state.

The town will turn the water overusage bill over to Matt Dannheisser, the town’s attorney, to being collection proceedings.

The Town of Century was successful in recovering over $300,000  for prison system natural gas usage. The town received a $302,488.40 check in late October to cover back gas billings for the Century Correctional Institute.

The dispute stemmed from billing practices that dated back to 2000. Under the town’s agreement with the DOC and Century Correctional Institute, the prison was to pay for natural gas at the rate of 120 percent of the town’s actual cost. The town’s billing system would generate a bill at the normal rate, then town employees would re-rate the bill and send a new bill about 10 days later at the 120 percent rate. That adjustment was originally done twice a year based upon the rate from nine months earlier.

But in 2000, there was spike in natural gas prices,  Matt Dannheisser, the town’s attorney said, and the town went back to the DOC that agreed to pay 100 percent of the town’s cost on a monthly basis. But they did not agree to pay the 20 percent profit margin until a new agreement was reached.

Town Accountant Robert Hudson had reported to the council several months ago that the DOC owed about $569,000 in back payments. But that amount included $127,000 in interest that Dannheisser said the DOC was not willing to pay, and the DOC disputed some of the billing amounts.

The check received in October was deposited into the town’s gas fund, McCall said, with the town council to make the eventual decision what to do with the funds.

Comments

2 Responses to “Town Wants $300,000 From Prison For Water Overages”

  1. Just paying attention on February 8th, 2009 5:45 pm

    Please pay attention to the text of the article. The charge to FDOC is 120% of the cost to the Town of Century, not the retail or commercial rate. This is only 20% above what the Town pays and is considerably less than the retail rates. Given the expenses involved in maintaining the pipelines, metering equipment, training required for employees by the Department of Transportation (pipeline sefety regs.) and adding odorant to the gas, 20% for transportation is more than fair to the FDOC. It seams to me that the State is the entity that is trying to take advantage of the Town.

  2. Jay on February 4th, 2009 9:32 am

    Town of Century’s cash cow is the Florida Department of Corrections. Century is going to milk the cow till it dies or they’ll finally figure out that the cash cow is really a bull. I wouldn’t fault FDOC if they refused to pay more than the actual going rate for services. FDOC paying a higher rate just so the town can profit is absurd. The current rate at which other commercial users of services by the town should already have a profit rate included, but not an additional 20%. I think I’m going to call Rep. Greg Evers and complain that the citizens of Florida are being milked by the town of Century.

Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News