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Beginning tomorrow, San Diego water and sewer rate payers will be getting statements in their bills from Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN). The inserts will be put in with bills three times a year for five years, according to Michael Shames, head of UCAN. The initial inserts will be pitches to join UCAN. Other inserts will "focus on water and sewer rates, how much money is needed, who pays what?" says Shames. "We will also be focusing on customer service -- how responsive [the City utilities] are to customers." Back in 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that forcing a utility to include inserts in bills violated free speech -- a decision thwarting UCAN at the time. However, the current situation results from settlement of a lawsuit earlier in this decade in which the City was caught overcharging residents and undercharging businesses. UCAN won a $35 million settlement in that case. Councilmember Donna Frye had pushed the matter into the open.
Beginning tomorrow, San Diego water and sewer rate payers will be getting statements in their bills from Utility Consumers' Action Network (UCAN). The inserts will be put in with bills three times a year for five years, according to Michael Shames, head of UCAN. The initial inserts will be pitches to join UCAN. Other inserts will "focus on water and sewer rates, how much money is needed, who pays what?" says Shames. "We will also be focusing on customer service -- how responsive [the City utilities] are to customers." Back in 1986, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that forcing a utility to include inserts in bills violated free speech -- a decision thwarting UCAN at the time. However, the current situation results from settlement of a lawsuit earlier in this decade in which the City was caught overcharging residents and undercharging businesses. UCAN won a $35 million settlement in that case. Councilmember Donna Frye had pushed the matter into the open.