Sunland Park Residents Confused, Angered By Water Bill Issues

Sunland Park residents have had a tough couple of months. Many city leaders have been arrested, charged and/or accused of corruption, the state took over City Hall because its finances were in such bad shape, and now dozens of residents are dealing with big changes on their water bills.

“I don’t understand it,” said Manuela Cervantes, a Sunland Park resident who told ABC-7 she must pay $40 more this month than usual, even though her water consumption has stayed the same.

Dozens of other Sunland Park residents are also confused and upset. Wednesday afternoon some aired out their concerns during a public meeting with the current water utility, the Camino Real Regional Utility Authority, CRRUA.

“This bill is $150 more than the last one,” said one woman as she addressed CRRUA.

CRRUA chairwoman Karen Perez explained the utility is working with customers on a case-by-case basis to determine whether their bills are accurate, but she said water bill discrepancies in Sunland Park existed long before CRRUA took over operations.

Up until earlier this year, water and waste water services and billing were handled by the city of Sunland Park itself.

Perez said when Sunland Park was in charge of the water service, city employees failed to read customers’ water meters so bills were inaccurate. Perez said since CRRUA took over that issue has been addressed.

Another factor in Sunland Park’s billing blunders was a decision by city council to issue deep discounts on the utility bills for certain residents. The New Mexico State Auditor determined that practice was illegal according to a recently released report.

“There’s been a lot of money lost,” said Perez.

Sunland Park city council also failed to implement water and waste water rate increases that had been approved in 2009. CRRUA voted to fix that issue Wednesday afternoon by implementing the overdue rate hikes: 4 percent for water and 6 percent for waste water.

Adding to those missteps, Perez said Sunland Park did not bill any customers at all during the months of December 2010, July 2011 and December 2011.

The combination of all those factors means CRRUA is left to try to recoup the lost revenue and rectify the inaccurate bills. Perez said it may seem like bills are going up lately, when it’s really a case of the new utility trying to correct the city’s past mistakes.

“It puts us in a difficult situation because we don’t want to point the finger at Sunland Park either,” said Perez.

However, Perez acknowledged fixing the water bill situation has been a difficult task and encouraged Sunland Park residents who are concerned about their bills to go to CRRUA’s office to correct any lingering mistakes.

ABC-7 asked Perez what the response has been from Sunland Park administrators when asked why so many missteps were taken when the city was responsible for managing water services.

“(Sunland Park leaders’ responses have been) varied,” said Perez. “I think under the current climate they have all been very defensive.”