Sunday, April 19, 2015

Watermetergate Scandal : In The Millions $$$$$$$ ????

In her presentation to council , the Director of Financial Services indicated that after the faulty water meters had been replaced there was an increase in the water and sewer revenue of $111,250.00 for the billing period of October,November and December 2014 compared to the same billing period in the previous year.
 Staff is still busy with budget matters so I'll use that number to work with......If I double that number for the spring/summer billing periods and keep it the same for January , February and March I should get a good idea of how much water and sewer wasn't billed for during the year. Too keep the estimate very conservative I won't factor in the higher summer water rates.

Oct,Nov,Dec 2013   $111,250.00
July,Aug,Sept 2013 $222,500.00
Apl,May,June 2013 $222,500.00
Jan,Feb,Mar 2013   $111,250.00
-----------------------------------------------
total for year            $667,500.00  
                                                                                                                                                                        In her presentation to council , the Director of Financial Services also indicated that the problem with the meters had been going on for five years or more with one account being under billed since 2004.
If I just use the five year period I get : 5 years x $667,500.00 = $3,337,500.00
 I hope that I am way off with this estimate so feel free to comment if you see a problem with my math or methodology.

  If in fact the District gave away millions of dollars of water and sewer services while the rest of the community paid the highest water rates in Canada , there should be a full forensic audit.
  Normally I am against the District hiring consultants but if the consultant is a forensic auditor it will be money well spent.
 Some readers have asked if Tin Wis or MacKenzie Beach also had irregularities with their billing but I have no information on that at this time.




20 comments:

Anonymous said...

In this perfect world there is no loss of revenue.Repeat often.

Raoul Estate said...

Wow! It's honestly too bad the BC government hired a municipal auditor who didn't work out because this is clearly the kind of situation that urgently needs investigation. Tofino Council should act quickly nonetheless to reassure taxpayers that this outrageous discrepancy is fully disclosed and remedial action taken. We've been hosed!

Walter Mitty said...

That pretty much cancels out any benefits from the Resort Municipality Initiative. Well played Tofino !

Ralph Tieleman said...

Quote from former CAO Bob Long
“In a perfect world, management structure would reflect the ability to deliver council’s vision. In a less-than-perfect world, the structure will reflect other objectives likely more focused on the strengths and weaknesses.“

Anonymous said...

Time to contract out or privatize the water delivery system.At least then metering and accounting would be done correctly.

Anonymous said...

This is not rocket science ... total water flow = X therefore billings should total (in the real world) close to X (say +/- 5%) ... what is needed is competent staff who work rather than put in time waiting to collect their pension cheque.

Anonymous said...

WOW! Words fail.

Anonymous said...

Was there some attempt at a cover up here ? Staff had known about this since last May ?

Ralph Tieleman said...

If the resorts hadn't asked for a reduction in water rates this whole scandal would have stayed under wraps ! So much for transparency !!

Anonymous said...

'If the resorts hadn't asked for a reduction in water rates'…..

That takes chutzpah!!!

Anonymous said...

Who cares about the water meters ! There are dog feces in town .

Anonymous said...

Meanwhile our lovely Mayor is more interested in exploring social phenomenons of dog poop.
not our sewer system mind you nor pausing to explain to the electorate how and why the DOT seems to have given away possibly 3,000,000+ dollars worth of water in missed revenue. mist revenue. missed revenue that pays for operating the water system.

Cal Q Later said...

There was no missed revenue . Don't you idiots understand modern accounting pracitices ? All users paid the bills they were presented with . What could be simpler ?

Anonymous said...

Don't you understand spell check ? What could be simpler ?

Anonymous said...

What some people don't understand is that when you accept a high rate of pay you should also accept a high level of responsibilty .

Anonymous said...

That's why I'm voting for Gord Johns

Anonymous said...

Ralph you forget in your quickie calculations that those resorts were using the expensive processed water at the south end of town. Our water rates are based on averaging the costs over all the users but in this case the water they were using for free cost I'd guess probably at least double what the rest of the system uses. The resorts should be paying the full shot and subsidizing the year round residents.

Ralph Tieleman said...

I was trying to keep the estimate as conservative as possible . If you want a more accurate number you could ask the District for output numbers from the Sharp Rd water treatment plant.

Anonymous said...

It's only fair that resorts get free water as they have to compete with vacation rentals that don't pay commercial tax .It is a good way to level the playing field.

Anonymous said...

So my water bill for the expensive three months is $400.
on average the house uses about 200 gallons of water per day.
that's 18,000 gallons per quarter costing roughly 2.2 cents per gallon.
a room in a resort also consumes about 200 gallons per day.
an 80 unit resort therefore goes through about 16,000 gallons per day.
so that it is $352 per day times 90 so the resorts Bill for the expensive months should be about $31,680.
just sayin