Friday, April 22, 2005

Verona Water rates, fees and illegal law

In April 2003 I noticed my water meter reading was very high, 46000 gallons over what my meter read. Normal usage was 10000 they had taken a reading and applied it as usage. Taking the matter to Douglas Luenberger, resulted in nothing being done, stated I had to pay the bill reguardless.
After meeting with David Reed, calling Scott Massacchio. Being told I would have to pay the bill. David Reed said it was like Nimo one quarter your estimated and the next actual. Difference is with Nimo you arn't charged 8 consecutive estimates, they do come out and read the meter.When they get the reading they adjust and credit your account.
Any how they tried saying my meter was broke, none the less when they pulled out the meter it still was 46000 gallons less than what I had been charged for and that was almost 6 months later. I still didn't let the matter drop, I contacted Attorney General and they were no help. I called Senator and no help there, where I did get my help was Assemblyman Townsend who sent me the information. One thing led to another and I found my self reading up on laws that govern Towns and Municipalities. Low and behold I find a law that was in effect (Penalty law) that goes against the laws of NY State. April 16th 2004 I contacted Darrell Curtis and sent him an email and spoke to him while he was on duty.From there I spoke to Paul Thompson, who said he would look into my facts, Kenneth Brewer stated that when Comptrollers Office tells him differnent then he will act. Scott Massacchio was not available.
The Commission of Investigations was called about April 10th and told that they were charging penalties that were illegal. They informed me to inform them.
With that I called Darrell Curtiss who is a Sherriff Deputy. I send him the files and told him the penalties were illegal, he sent the information to Douglas Luenberger and David Reed. For months they did nothing about the over charges. Some residents were hit with 35% penalty per quarter. I personally was hit with in 32 days 51.8% penalty when all they had to do was correct the problem.
Since April and May of 2004 they the Board have done nothing to correct the problem. I hand delivered a letter to David Reed on November 1, 2004 which read the penalties were illegal. That they had until January 1st of 2005 to correct the problem.
They the Board have tried to discredit me when ever possible to the point of telling a planning board member that coming to my home would lead to her removal of Office, I immediately got on the phone with NY State Town Attorneys and spoke to them about the situation. I havent heard anything since then and neither has the Women that was to be removed. Nothing like your 1st Ammendment of the Constitution being violated. Attorney of NY state told me to video tape these childish men and post it on the web.
Some residents were given credits on paper that were never applied to their balances. Some with huge bills recieved very small credits, those that were friends of the Board members. When one man found out how much they over charged he went to David Reed demanding to know the truth.
Since then I have pushed for an audit along with the referral from Commission of investigations. December 2004 there was an Audit done by NY State Comptrollers Office. Since all of this has taken place I now read the laws of New York and the Constitution.
November 29th 2004 Article in Rome Sentinel Verona Will Comply with Sate law on late water bill fees. They state here that they did not know when in fact they have known since April of 2004. They state the amount of people that were over charged were small amounts. If mine was $217.00 what would he constitute as small. There were about 150 or more persons that had huge water bills with this type of penalty. One gentlemans bill reached one thousand dollars. Can you imagine the penalty on that, at 24 to 51% per quarter. As for the Board members two of the men are Law Officers, one is a sherriff deputy and the other a cop for a near by city.
August of 2004 a law suit was filed by a James Weisbrod for Conspiracy against the Town, Mr. Weisbrod won his case, they settled out of court. Our Salt Barn the gentleman that built it sued Town for payment of services. Federal Government had to come in and tell Board to pay Highway their over time they had coming, a sick highway employee was ill and needed his vacation pay, HE HAD TO SUE TO GET IT..