At November 2004 Board meeting

The Town Board admitted to illegally over charging, but refused to return all moneys due to its residents.
Today the people that have been effected still want their money back, some could mean a couple hundred dollars for one year, and here we are talking 7 years of overcharges. Ifthey owed me just ninety dollars just in overcharges could you imagine what one would have paid with a $500.00 water bill, 24% on 500.00 is equal to$120.00 in over charges. A bill with $100.00 is $ 24.00 dollars over a course of a year would mean $100.00 overcharge for the $100.00 bill.
Area Towns do buy their water from other sources as I have investigated. They bill their customers way less than what we are paying. Our water rates are so high that a both Oneida and Rome pay less than we do in two years. Rome pays their water bills twice a year,we: four times a year. Vernon every quarter they get a water bill, I believe anything under 5000 gallons is something like $20.00, our elderly are using maybe 3000 gallons per quarter and are paying for 10,000 which result in $44.40. They the elderly are being taken advantage of because they Water Dept will take your meter reading and yet charge you the minimum of $44.40 then the next quarter do another reading and charge you the same. example January reading is 123456 , April reading is 126456 ,July reading 137456, Here what you would pay, January $44.40. April $44.40 in July $51.75. In 9 months you have used 14000 gallons and have paid for 31,000 gallons, total cost being $140.55. In Vernon it would cost approximately $65.00 if that.

April 16th was the actual first time Darrell Curtis knew about the penalties as you can see here David Reed knew may 4th 2004 and continued to over charge residents for some9 months later. I asked the Comptrollers Office how long it would take to reduce the percentages and fix the bills. Their reply was 15 minutes. HUMM

Heres the page that the letter belongs to. When reading the letter referre to this page. Seems taking of money isn't only for Court Clerks, its for assessors, and town employees including the town clerk.

Audit 2001 page 17

HUMMMMMMMM Read 17 and 18 also this is from the actual Audit done in 2001 and this is still going on

Seems to many hands are in the till

Some Persons need to PRACTICE WHAT THEY PREACH

Here is how our Town Web Site is used. I think this is not what I would like to see on it. I would like to see the laws and changes that are about to be made.

Seems with what I have posted so far makes those of Verona Town Board seem a tad bit of an exaggerator. Never once did I ever say Curtiss was a thief, he DID!!! There is nothing in anything I have written that uses that term.

NY State wrote Town of Verona a letter reguarding the 2003 Fiscal report

This is a ledger you will see the percentage rates to the right of amount applied. Also the arrow represents my dollar amount to be relevied. By the time this bill was sent to Oneida county it jumped to $578.00. What other penalty did they attach.

This Letter I have removed person name. I do not have rights to publish their name or address. This letter was given to NY State Comptroller Paul Sheldon. Mr. Douglas Lueneberger never came here to check anything out.

NY State Consolidated Law Increase of water rates. Ours in 1998 increased 150%

Rome Editorial 11/10/2004

Rome Sentinel Article 11/29/2004

Packed in here is letter I hand delivered to Town Super

Tammie Wilczak
Verona NY 13478
November 1st 2004
To: Town of Verona Board Members, David Reed, Darrel Curtis, Scott Masacchio, Kenneth Brewer, Paul Thompson,
RE: Water Department Late Penalties and New York State Consolidated Town Law Article 12 Section 198 (3) (d).
Gentlemen, Please address this issue in Public forum. The Town law regarding water late penalties that was adopted in 1997 (153-44 is the law number) is in violation of the New York State Consolidated Laws Town Law Section 198 (3) (d). I previously had called (on the phone) some of you and stated that the percentage rate on the water billing is inconsistent with the law. Mr. Brewer stated that when the State Comptrollers Office tells him different then he will change things. Mr. Paul Thompson said he would look into it. Mr. Scott Masacchio was unavailable at the time. Mr. Darrel Curtis was sent the law which he sent to Mr. Douglas Lueneberger, which also was sent to Mr David Reed. Having two members of law on the board I would think that the Town Board members would oversee that the New York Consolidated Laws are enforced. I have contacted the Comptrollers Office, Senator Meires, Assemblyman Townsend and Commission of Investigations, Department of State, and New York State Attorney General. I am to inform you that you are in violation of Section 198 (3) (d) under Town law ( Article 12). This section of the law states that arrears for water charges are not to exceed Ten (10) percent of the amount due. There is to be no law adopted that is inconsistent with the NY State Laws. This can be found in “Chapter IV Local Government Home Rule Power“: heading under; Restrictions on Local Law Powers. The Law reads as follows “ The local law must be consistent with ALL general State Laws and with the Constitution” , enclosed is the page from Chapter IV Local Government Home Rule Power This matter needs to be corrected to conform to New York State Laws. Please see that it is corrected with in a time frame of the next billing period, January 2005.
Sincerely,Tammie WilczakSignature
CC US Attorney General Elliot Spitzer New York State Comptroller A. Hevesi
Enclosed is Restrictions on Local Law Power NY State Consolidated law Town law 198 (3) (d) Article 12

Email concerning Water penalties May 2004

Subj:
FW: Actual water bills
Date:
5/5/2004 10:54:59 AM Eastern Standard Time
From:
curtis1@dreamscape.com
To:
Dudemomma1@aol.com
CC:
veronatownsupr@tcswebmail.com, veronawaterdept@tcswebmail.com
Sent from the Internet (Details)
Tami

Below is my response from Doug on this matter - as you can see there was an error that has been corrected relating to your payment with it now being applied to your account.

Further, I spoke with Supervisor Reed relating to the percentage amount adopted in Town Law 1997 (153-44) and that is being researched to assure that we are correct in what we are doing or identify if a change is required so that we can act on it.

I'm am forwarding this to both Supervisor Reed and Water & Sewer Superintendent Luenberger so we are all in the loop on this with a THANK YOU to both Supervisor Reed and Water & Sewer Superintendent Luenberger for their quick response and attention to this matter.

Councilman Darrell C. Curtis

PS - Doug - print this for the file please.
-----Original Message-----From: doug [mailto:veronawaterdept@tcswebmail.com]Sent: Wednesday, May 05, 2004 10:41 AMTo: Darrell C. CurtisSubject: Re: Actual water bills
Darrell:
The water bill in question is wrong . Apparently Kurt came in paid water bill with out having his water bill in hand and Pat recorded payment to the wrong account Kris Knight in the Sconondoa water district. The collection department (Pat&Pat) noted on a sticky that he payed without bill. Pat attempted to call Tammy this am to explain glitch and correct. no answer no answer machine.

The twenty percent (20%) late charges we charge is Town Law adopted in 1997 (153-44). You were on the board when this was adopted.

Doug
__________________________________________________
I happen to have been on the phone when Mrs. Nestle called, thats why I returned her call to find that there was no answer. I happen to have call waiting and caller ID

Email concerning Water Penalties May 2004

Subj:
FW: Local Government laws
Date: 5/5/2004 7:39:48 AM Eastern Standard Time
From:
curtis1@dreamscape.com
To:
veronawaterdept@tcswebmail.com
CC:
veronatownsupr@tcswebmail.com
File:
LocalGovernmentHomerule.jpg (380284 bytes) DL Time (157406 bps): < class="aolmailheader" title="Internet Header Details" href="aolmsg://054e67f8/inethdr/1" delkey="{E4612CD5-AF47-4DDD-9A9C-7B8A031AEB69}">(Details)
Doug

Take a look at these as well and let me know.
Thanks
Darrell
-----Original Message-----From: Dudemomma1@aol.com [mailto:Dudemomma1@aol.com]
Sent: Tuesday, May 04, 2004 7:54 PM
To: curtis1@dreamscape.com Subject: Local Government laws Here is what you need. Council is wrong, those late fees and penalties Violate the New York State Consolidated Laws Read under Federal Constitution Foundation.