MWA board pushes to reveal, recoup unpaid stormwater bills

Editor’s note: This story has been corrected to clarify remarks made by Finance Committee Chair Dwight Jones regarding the stormwater agreement with Macon-Bibb County. The article previously reported that Jones proposed terminating the agreement. He did not. Jones requested that the board refer the matter to the next finance committee meeting for discussion. The referral motion failed. We regret the error and have updated the article to reflect accurate information.

The Macon Water Authority is facing mounting pressure from its own board to disclose and collect substantial unpaid stormwater fees owed by some of its largest customers.

For months, some members have been asking for details about which commercial and government customers are not paying those fees and how much each of them owe. 

Stormwater fees are charges people and businesses pay to help maintain the drainage systems that manage rainwater and prevent flooding.

In September, after a meeting that featured discussion about a possible rate increase, District 4 board member Frank Patterson told The Melody he thought proposals about raising the monthly stormwater fee from $4.99 to $5.25 were “crap” since customers who owe much more apparently are not paying the existing rate. 

“Get these other folks collected,” said Patterson, who represents the west side of Bibb County. “We’ve got some [accounts] that are real complicated. The county is not paying us. That was about $500,000 a year.” 

A large medical institution and a university also owe untold sums for stormwater fees, Patterson said: “Those two stand out in the county of all people not paying us.”

Since Macon-Bibb County transferred ownership of the stormwater infrastructure to MWA in 2020, residential customers pay $4.99 per month for the service. Other customers, such as government, commercial, nonprofit or industrial accounts, pay for stormwater twice a year at a rate of $4.99 per every 2,200 square feet of impervious surface on their properties. 

It is unclear to Patterson whether MWA has the square footage information it needs to charge those customers appropriately.

At the MWA meeting on Dec. 4, Patterson still had not been provided with the stormwater fee payment information he and other board members sought three months ago. 

“I would like to have a detailed report on stormwater — people who’ve not paid for various reasons,” Patterson said. “We have businesses that haven’t paid, but some are going back and paying for the other years. I want to know how many companies we got. That has not been detailed to this board. There’s a lot of money out there from that.”

MWA lawyer Jay Strickland said he was unsure whether the law allows him to share that information with the board.

In June, The Melody submitted a public records request for seven years of billing histories for seven industries. But when the records were produced, the authority hid the names of the companies. Believing there to be no legal reason for MWA to not provide company names, The Melody then requested assistance from the Georgia Attorney General’s Office of Mediation. 

At the Dec. 4 meeting, District 1 board member Elaine Lucas mentioned a letter the attorney general’s office recently sent to the authority related to The Melody’s request.

“Y’all refused to provide that information to a reporter,” Lucas said. “Is it allowable or not? Who gets it, mister attorney?”

Strickland said what can be produced in response to open records requests is different from what can be provided to authority board members.

“I believe if this board requests it, then it can be produced,” Strickland said. “We’ll look at whether or not we can identify the actual account holders.”

Lucas and Patterson asked if the documents should be reviewed during a closed-door meeting and Strickland said he would “look at that. I don’t know off the top of my head because I’ve never had that kind of request to deal with before.” 

Patterson expressed his frustration.

“We’ve been working on this since ‘21, ‘22 – that was before your time. But we’ve been trying to get all this stuff, and we’re not getting anywhere. And there’s a few people that’s been very difficult to find all their properties,” Patterson said. “I think it’s very simple: What properties you got that they need to be paying stormwater fees? They should start paying stormwater fees. … It ain’t fair for me to pay my $4.99 every single month and other people that make a damn lot more money than I do are not paying it.” 

Patterson proposed the board vote to direct Strickland to produce records to it at the next monthly meeting. The measure passed 5-2. The two nay votes were board members Bill Howell, a county commissioner appointed to the authority board by the mayor, and Dwight Jones, who represents District 3, which includes the north side of the county.

Patterson said he would support the authority filing lawsuits to collect past-due stormwater bills.

“I just want to know how far we’ve come, and I want to know who’s paying,” Patterson said.

Patterson noted the authority can go back only four years to collect unpaid bills and “four years is fast approaching.” 

Later in the meeting, Jones asked the board to refer further talk about the county stormwater agreement to the finance committee for discussion: “I would like to refer to finance a reconsideration of the water authority continuing to maintain the stormwater effort for the county … I’m not asking for a vote on that now, I’m strictly asking for referral for it to be considered.”

Howell supported that measure, which failed 4-3. 

Patterson and Jones both served on the authority board in 2022 when it penned the stormwater agreement with the county. 

“We probably got the short end of that stick,” Jones said of the agreement with the county. “It was all jammed up trying to get an (intergovernmental agreement) and with some members of the community. I’m taking a black eye about that in my representation of the water authority, and I’m fine with that. But I don’t think we need to let history repeat itself.”

Jones said he worries about the financial future of the authority since the board voted to forgo a rate increase at its meeting in October even as it faces $600 million in capital improvements due to deferred maintenance.

“I’ve been in business 40 years, been pretty successful at it. My daddy taught me if you’re going to stay in business, you got to take in more you pay out or you’re not going to stay in business,” Jones said. “I also have learned that you can be good at a few things or bad at many. … I think we’re losing our focus.”