TUCSON, Arizona (13 News) – Pima County officials are asking Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes to intervene in a years-long dispute over water rates.
In 2021, Tucson Water imposed different water prices on tens of thousands of water users in the county.
These rates were 15% higher than the rates paid by city customers. County water users paid the surcharge for 1 1/2 years before the courts stopped them.
Now the city and county are at odds over how to reimburse these customers for the higher fees that the courts have declared illegal.
“There has been no refund or attempt to compensate people who may have paid the difference rate, the higher rate that they should not have paid,” said Jan Lesher, Pima County administrator.
Exactly how much that would be per customer has not yet been determined, but the city estimates that it could generate an additional $11 million per year from the higher rates for district customers.
The district administrator sent a memo She informed the members of the county board about the progress in resolving the problem and informed them that she was asking the Attorney General to intervene.
“Can we convince people that they have a case where they can involve the Attorney General’s Office and/or the Attorney General’s Office of Consumer Protection to intervene on behalf of these individuals,” Lesher said.
Although the city justified the higher fees by saying that the pump cost county customers more, it was unable to substantiate this claim with any statistics or studies.
“After reviewing the case, the courts concluded, ‘Hey, City of Tucson, you didn’t do this right, you didn’t do it in the right order,'” said Dr. Matt Heinz, District 2 supervisor. “So that’s not valid.”
However, it might be justified since different water rates are common in Arizona. It’s possible that it would have been fine if the city had followed proper procedures.
However, because the city did not follow proper procedures, the courts ruled that its actions were unlawful and resulted in customers being overcharged.
The city has exempted some facilities such as Oro Valley and Marana, even though they are outside city limits.
The city has stopped charging these higher fees, but so far it has been unsuccessful in obtaining refunds for customers who were overcharged.
“If people outside the city of Tucson paid a fee that they should not have paid and it was declared null and void, then all of those people need to be compensated in one way or another,” Lesher said.
Nevertheless, the city reimbursed the county for the excessive fees but failed to refund the money to individual customers.
13 News checked with the city and was told there will be a court hearing on September 24th and we should know more about the outcome of the case then.
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