The Rock Hall Town Council, which also serves as Rock Hall Utilities Board, unanimously passed a resolution Thursday that authorizes the town to enter into payments arrangements with property owners who are behind on their water and sewer bills – in order to prevent turnoff.
The resolution gives the town the authority to set terms and interest rates for collection.
Though the resolution applies to all property owners served by the town, it was needed more immediately as a vehicle to support a Sept. 30 resolution by the council to collect discounts given to four out-of-town property owners in May of 2009. Without the resolution, the four property owners would have to pay back the full amount of the discounts they received — or be subject to turnoff.
A group of citizens posed a legal challenged this year to the 2009 decision and the town’s attorney, Charles “Chip” MacLeod, subsequently advised the council that there were good legal arguments to reverse the 2009 decision and pursue collection against the four property owners. The discounts have now climbed above $15,000.
The Sailing Emporium, which was one of the four accounts to receive a discount in 2009, tried unsuccessfully to postpone Thursday’s vote. Their attorney, Chris Drummond, said he wanted more time to review the minutes of a Sept. 30 resolution that cleared the way to recoup the discounts from the four property owners.
Chris Drummond, attorney for Sailing Emporium, Oct. 10, 2013
“I’m asking that you consider tabling this…so that frankly I, on behalf of my client, can learn more about what has been transpiring on this issue over the last six or seven months,” Drummond said.
He said he needed to do more research to determine “whether or not the town is in a position to legally collect money it now claims should have been collected, but wasn’t, because the town made the decision not to collect it.”
Drummond also raised the question of whether the statute of limitations had run out to collect from the four property owners.
“If somebody owes you money, and you don’t do anything about it for three years, you can’t sue the person to get the money,” Drummond told the council. “We’re talking about fees that in some instances are close to five years old.”
But MacLeod advised the council that passing the measure would not affect the previous vote on Sept. 30 to recoup the discounts — but would simply give the council the authority to work out payment arrangements with property owners.
“Right now you don’t have the ability to offer those particular customers any relief in how to pay the…amounts owed,” MacLeod said. “This would give you the ability in those cases.”
Councilwoman Susan Francis asked MacLeod if the town could be liable to refund the recouped sewer fees if any of the four property owners successfully sued to stop collection.
“If they win a case, do we have to pay them back,” Francis asked.
“A lot of that depends,” MacLeod responded. “You all will take action on what you think is in the best interests of the town — based on advice you want to consider. How other people react to that we’re not really sure — without knowing the form of what challenge may come [or] what relief is requested.”
“My advice is that you go with what’s in front of you,” MacLeod said. “[Of course] you don’t want to make decisions that will put the town in a situation where it could be exposed to risk, but people can decide to litigate for a host of reasons. We’ve done research as directed as far as the legal considerations, and we have provided that advice [to the council], so you really just have to make a judgment decision.”
“Passing this in my opinion does not stop anybody from appealing,” said Councilman Olin “Butch” Price. “It doesn’t stop that from happening, they can appeal any decision that we make.”
The resolution passed unanimously.
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