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Water Customers Get Attention

Imagine yourself in Annie Gwinn's shoes... living alone in a house without water much of last year, because of renovation work.
Then she got a $14 hundred dollar water and sewer bill for that six month stretch.

ANNIE GWINN: "So I'm trying to figure out ….did I furnish water to the whole Cleveland area here?"

For other customers, disputed bills ranged as high as ten thousand dollars or more.
And the problem is not confined to the city proper. The Cleveland Water Department serves more than one-point-four million customers throughout Northeast Ohio.

(SERVICE REP, CLIENT TALKING SOFTLY)

At the Watson Center on Cleveland's east side, Water Department workers manned six tables one evening this week, trying to help customers like Michael Kado. He's been battling broken water meters...and baffling bills.... since early 2006.

MICHAEL KADO: "It's finally good to talk to a human -- that will sit down and listen to you. The problem you had before - people would not listen to you. The only thing they would tell you before was 'pay your water bill'. If you had a dispute, they didn't care about your dispute, all they cared about was getting money."

RICK JACKSON: "So you think the city is doing the right thing?"

MICHAEL KADO: "Yes. This is something that's been needed; a long time ago."

Department Director Barry Withers says at the very least.... he hopes to be able to explain the bills to customers.

BARRY WITHERS: "We have to be able to respond to people in all situations. And people may disagree with us, and we may disagree with them, but there ought to be a way that we can handle it in a productive way."

But few disputes are likely to be settled quickly. Staff at the community centers have to write down information, and promised phone calls back to their customers, since they cannot access customer accounts from remote locations.
The city's computer system doesn't have that capability. Officials say they hope to have a new system in place by the end of the year.
Additional neighborhood meetings are set around Cuyahoga, Summit, and Medina Counties between now, and mid July.

Rick Jackson is a senior host and producer at Ideastream Public Media. He hosts the "Sound of Ideas" on WKSU and "NewsDepth" on WVIZ.