Fitts, Whitener spar over back taxes
Councilman Mike Panter alleged that an article published in The News Observer had “misquoted” information regarding the Environemental Protection Division (EPD)’s latest water audit during a regular meeting Tuesday, August 11.
“I think they were just basing it off upon some retail versus wholesale facts,” Councilman Nathan Fitts said.
Utilities Director Rebecca Harkins blamed this allegation on a “misunderstanding of how the water audit works.”
The article in question, which appeared in the July 8 issue, included a total amount of real losses at $1,157,712, which is the retail value at which customers pay versus the cost the city pays to produce the water.
“If you were to buy a pair of tennis shoes for 50 bucks, and you listed them for sale for 100, and somebody stole them, you didn’t lose a 100 dollars, you only lost 50,” Harkins said.
Despite this statement, customers are still responsible for paying the amount associated with water loss.
Harkins also stated that the water loss for 2019 was only 36%; however, the audit states “non-revenue water as percentage by volume of water supplied” at 45.8% and 42.9% at “real losses at customer retail unit cost.”
A copy of the 2019 audit is available upon request, Harkins said.
Also during discussion, Panter said the city has collected $64,580 in taxes for May, June and July of 2020 alone, which is a $60,000 increase from last year.
The city is still $252,000 short of outstanding delinquent taxes received, which is a jump from the initial $500,000.
“We are willing to work with people,” Panter said.
Later on in the discussion, Fitts and Whitener went back on forth as to whether or not Whitener was responsible for eight years of outstanding taxes, which led to Whitener saying, “You know, this childish behavior of yours is getting old, Nathan. It really is. People are getting very tired of it.”