Amador County – Amador Water Agency board of directors last week discussed how they have been addressing delinquent fees and bills.

The board held two special meetings last week to address delinquent standby fees from a Sacramento firm, and settled with a payment from the company for $43,000, and an agreement to pay another $40,000 in a year.

The firm A-Crew owns a parcel in the Central Amador Water Project service area and was in arrears for standby fees. AWA General Manager Gene Mancebo said the special meeting March 5 discussed funds owed.

The company owns a 137-acre parcel in the Pine Grove area that had a tentative approval for 95 units, when owned by Sutter Creek Villages Incorporated, for the Mokelumne Bluffs Subdivision, according to a 2009 Amador County website listing.

Mancebo said the company also owed Amador County $100,000 in taxes. The property was slated for auction by the Treasurer and Tax Collector’s Department, but by March 6 the parcel had been redeemed.

In a special meeting March 6, the AWA board met in closed session to discuss the agreement. He said the firm paid AWA $43,000 immediately and the rest will be paid in 12 months.

On Thursday, the AWA Board also discussed delinquent payments in Lake Camanche Village districts. Several members of the public asked for a change from monthly billing back to bi-monthly billing.

Director Robert Manassero said the main reason for the Finance Committee’s recommendation to switch from bi-monthly to monthly billing was that “we were concerned about delinquencies.” He voted for it because “I thought the delinquencies would decrease if we spread the cost” for customers, especially during the recession.

He said it was a four-month test-run, only in Camanche, and “if it’s not right, if it’s not feasible, we will return it to bi-monthly billing.”

Camanche Homeowner’s Association board member Vera Fergusun said AWA should keep bi-monthly billing. She said the Association’s annual assessments are $36. “People laugh at that and yet people have trouble coming up with that.” She believed the big issues were “attitude and mismanagement.”

Kathy Wade of Camanche said the billing change appears that the AWA board is “questioning our ability to make financial decisions,” and was an insult to their intelligence. She said: “We’re an older retirement type neighborhood” for the most part. “If people haven’t learned by this time in their life” that they have this amount of money for a year, “then God help us.”

Manassero said “the Board had no intention of insulting your intelligence.” Mancebo said “we receive almost daily requests by customers to switch to monthly billing.”

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.