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Apartment Developer Threatens Legal Action Against Century Over $100K In Water, Sewer Fees
March 8, 2018
The developers of a new 50-unit apartment complex in Century have paid the Town of Century to connect water and sewer service, but they are threatening legal action of the town does not refund over $100,000.
The Paces Foundation, Inc. submitted a $165,180 check to the town for waster and wastewater fees along with a protest letter from attorney William J. Dunaway of the Clark Partington law firm in Pensacola. The letter informed the town that the payment was made in full, but the amount remains in dispute.
“This payment is made under protest. My client reserves the right to challenge the amount of assessed connection fees, and will pursue all available judicial and administrative remedies to that end,” the attorney’s letter states.
“We received it (the attorney’s letter) under protest,” Century Mayor Henry Hawkins said.
“Nevertheless, because Century Park Apartments must have water and sewer before issuance of a certificate of occupancy, the enclosed check for $165,180.00 is tendered as full payment under protest of the disputed amount of water and sewer connection fees. My client respectfully renews its request that the Town refund the balance of $101,430.00 for the overpayment resulting from the increased fee assessment. My client is hopeful that this issue can be resolved without litigation, but they are prepared to pursue legal action in the event a voluntary refund is not forthcoming,” Dunaway wrote.
Paces contends they agreed to pay fees of $63,750. The amount, they say, was decided upon during a 2015 meeting with then-Mayor Freddie McCall and Town Planner Nickles. The only written agreement to come out of that meeting was a handwritten page showing calculations that Paces said were based upon the 2015 rates as published online in the town’s municipal code. The handwritten document also included a proposed fee for natural gas; however, the developer later opted to go all-electric.
The apartments will have a single large water meter and a single large sewage connection. It will not have 50 individual taps into the city services.
“It was agreed to by me, as a representative of the Paces Foundation, and the mayor at the point in time and your town planner. So from that, we had an agreement,” Development Manager Rick Haymond of Paces told the town council in December.
“So at the time we went by the documentation that was written under the ordinances and your resolutions for the fees,” Nickles told the council. Haymond said he never had a written contract regarding tap fees with a municipality in his 17 years, and had often used published rates available online.
McCall and Nickles (pictured left) do not deny the meeting, nor do they deny the agreement or the approximate $63,000 tap fee. “The town made a commitment to them. To me, they should do the right thing and honor that commitment,” Nickles said.
“I don’t know what else we could have done than to go to the highest officials in the city,” Haymond told the council, pointing out that the tap fee is the only disputed amount; he said Paces will be subject to all other current water and sewer rates.
Paces previously tendered a $63,750 payment on December 12, but the town rejected the payment and returned the check on December 18.
According to the Escambia County Building Services Department, Century Park Apartments has not yet been granted a certificate of occupancy as the building and inspections process continues.
NorthEscambia.com photos, click to enlarge.
Comments
16 Responses to “Apartment Developer Threatens Legal Action Against Century Over $100K In Water, Sewer Fees”
The $60K was the full amount in the town’s code under the previous mayor. The new amount was concocted by the new mayor and staff after the fact. Kind of like ordering a $12.99 meal at a restaurant, eating it and then getting a bill for $32.99.
In my opinion, this was just one of the many bad decisions made by our previous Mayor. This company should have been charged the full amount from the start, Nowadays everyone is looking for a “break” or “hook up”, What is wrong with paying what is owed. These type of things are the reason why Century is in the financial bind that it is in now. When you are a small town like Century, you cannot afford to give “cuts” or “hook ups” to everyone. We barely have enough revenue for day to day operations as it is. I feel bad for this company, that they were told this by the previous administration, but I feel like they should just pay what is owed. If you can’t afford to pay the water and sewer tap fees that are charged by the city or town that you want to build in, then don’t build.
As a retired plumbing contractor, I ask the council one question into 2. Your up front price should stand when I start your services, be it one year or ten from the start of my project.
It seems like some of this could have been alleviated with a simple letter – Thank you for the meeting on (date) and confirmation of (cost for water and sewer) We estimate project completion inn the spring (or whatever) of 2018 or the city could have written a similar letter. I am sure the developer has cone this before and has met with many uitility companies and done business with a handshake but looks like this time it caused grief for both parties. I think the city should honor the posted price as all parties agree that the meeting took place and the posted price was agreed on……….imho
Good ole boy government at it’s finest. Who would possibly want to locate a business in Century?
Saw that one coming..
if you are paying an attorney that doesn’t come to each and every meeting..get another one.
If you are paying an accountant that doesnt do the job get another one.
Running a municipality is directly related to knowing statutes, and ordinances and charter..The clerk is the highest paid permanent staff member like an administrator.
Get some talent on board.
This is a poor way to do business. Like DLo said, which I am not allowed to, this is not a dictatorship, or is it.
I call bs. If the contractor wanted those prices, they should have paid them immediately. All through Santa Rosa County once your plan is approved you pay the impact fees. I paid sewer and water fees upfront and waited almost two years for my occupancy . All this developer did was think they could pay right at occupancy, and that utility and impact fees are not dynamic and they could kite the impact fees. If you paid immediately, I think the courts would have upheld that payment, but to think any court in America is going to let a developer wait years to occupancy, and then pay the impact fees is a formula for a disaster for all the taxpayers who have been paying the bills for years. Also, since when does a lawyer think that not drafting a contract which set out time limits to secure a fee structure is a bad idea? The city and existing taxpayers should not have to pay for what appears to be some folks doing there own thing without council sanctions and a written agreement. I got written letters from the utilities what my impact fees were and I paid the same immediately. In regard to ethics, I would simply ask the developer where the letter was from century stating that the Council had approved the discount forever. Some folks seem to be operating without authority, and certainly the burden was on the developer’s lawyers to secure a proper written commitment from the TOWN, and arguing that they never had to do this before only shows why taxpayers keep getting ripped.
Ever since this new mayor took office questionable things seem to have been happening and this is another one. In my opinion Century is getting a bad name because of this. If a deal was made then the new administration should honor it, but this guy marches to the beat of a different drum.
This really makes me want to do business in Century (you just lost one).
The reason it wasn’t typed up and signed is because it was the standard rate at the time. I believe that both parties did not forsee it going up anytime soon thereby the builder only wrote it down as a note.
At any rate this is bad PR for the city going forward. What company or non profit would want to do business with the town when the town doesn’t show any negotiating skills and insist on charging almost 3 times more than the original figures.
It’s not that I don’t understand that the town wants to cover their cost but seeing that rates were different when negotiations were made they could have made a bargain of some sort . After all the apartments are a positive for Century. This is a bad way of doing business.
This is extortion, plain and simple.
The contractor sat down with the mayor and city planner, in good faith, and came up with a price, agreed upon by all, they didn’t put it into a contract because you shouldn’t have to put everything into a contract.
The new administration decided that they would add 100K to that number to pay for the poor budgeting and bad decisions made in the past and had the contractor over a barrel if they wanted to get water and sewer to the apartments.
Century will lose if this goes to court, and to be honest, whoever is responsible should be charged. This is not a third world dictatorship where you can squeeze participants for as much as you can because you run things.
$1,275 for water and sewer as quoted by Mayor a real bargain. If in Santa Rosa cost is $5,000 and bill to connect 50 units would be $250,000, a road block for so many projects
Well for starters, you could have actually had the Town, including the Mayor at that time, to put in official writing, notarized or at a minimum a signature. You produce a hand written note that “Cindy” on the corner could have written. What you have cannot be considered a legal or binding contract and any grown adult, in any business, should know better!
I have serious doubts that anybody made 50 taps on the water main and installed 50 separate water meters. Same with the Sewer line, Makes no sense to make 50 taps into a sewer line. And these prices are figured like its 50 different houses scattered around town. I’m guessing there may be 1 or 2 commercial water meters on that place (maybe 2″ or 2 1/2″) and sewers are not metered. I’m guessing those 50 apartments all dump into a couple 6 inch sewer lines or a single 8 inch line and the city makes one tap to pick that up.
Now those commercial grade utilities may very well be priced differently than a single house but it seems a bit random to just multiply the house rate by 50 because there are 50 apartments.