Comments on: Woman’s Home Threatened Over 1 Cent Water Bill

By: Lee James

Lee James — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 12:59:45 +0000

1. The billing dept. should modify their computer to flag accounts with small amounts, and allow a human to check the account instead of blindly sending out a bill for 1-cent; or even 1 dollar.

2. An amount that small should have been added to the following month’s bill.

3. City Collector Debora Marcoccio sounds like a real piece of work. She has a future in Washington, maybe with the IRS.

4. Mayor Kevin Dumas says the whole situation was blown out of proportion. He was referring to press coverage, but I submit that the city collector is the one who blew a 1-cent bill out of proportion. Mayor Dumas should follow Ms. Marcoccio to Washington.

By: Lux

Lux — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 17:54:48 +0000

You know what scares me, too? What if that woman didn’t *have a daughter to read her mail? What if no one was watching out for her?

Scary …

By: Mrs. Mecomber

Mrs. Mecomber — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 13:42:51 +0000

akaGaGa: OOOHHH!! LOL!! Now that’s funny! Nope, I didn’t see you waving your arms or ranting. LOL. I understand now! Lol, I did wonder a little when I read your first comment– it seemed so out of character for you to seemingly defend this action. Whew! I am relieved to see that you are still your justice-seeking, sarcastically-raving, red-blooded Patriot.

And about the computer– you are right that these bureaucrats have the nerve to blame the issue on computer problems and expect us to swallow it. What if the old woman had not paid the penny?! It’s scary to think about how few rights we really have, now. Private property rights have become laughable in this country… makes me so mad.

By: akaGaGa

akaGaGa — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 11:00:14 +0000

Ah, Mrs. M., I didn’t make myself clear. (You couldn’t hear me ranting or see me waving my arms around.) I was being so sarcastic that my complete agreement with you was lost in the translation. Please forgive me.

You’re absolutely right that a lien is ridiculous. Where we live, if you don’t pay your water bill they eventually just turn off your water – they don’t seize your property.

I just get fed up with bureaucrats, like the collection woman in this story, blaming their unconscionable actions on a computer – and then expecting us to swallow it.

By: Mrs. Mecomber

Mrs. Mecomber — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 05:05:39 +0000

akaGaGa, I have to disagree with your conclusion. Whether the computer did this or not is really irrelevant to the point I am making– that it is unjust that the government (via computer or via a person directly) has the authority to put a lien on a parcel of property for failure to pay a UTILITY bill.