City officials attempted to preempt a demonstration on April 16 against the city’s practice of turning off water to residential customers who have fallen behind on their bills, holding a press conference to highlight assistance programs for vulnerable residents and arguing the city’s shut-off policy is simply designed to target those who can pay what they owe but choose not to.
“Our focus is not as portray, as we are going after the little citizens that don’t have enough money to pay and all that, that’s what the assistance program is there , to help them, and very confident we have those programs,” said Rudy Chow, director of the Department of Public works during a press conference held on short notice at City Hall a half hour before a scheduled demonstration against the city’s policy to turn off water service was to be held. “But these turn-offs are really targeting those that . . . can afford to pay but choose not to pay.”
Chow argued that it is not fair for paying customers to subsidize those who refuse to do so, and said that the city provides multiple notices to delinquent account holders, as well as financial assistance grants and other forms of aid to help vulnerable residents remain current on their accounts or pay off past due bills in manageable installments.
Shortly after the press conference, the One Baltimore United coalition began its scheduled demonstration over the city’s residential water shut-off policy, strategically positioned in front of a number of gushing water fountains that adorn the War Memorial Plaza outside City Hall.
“Access to water is a bare minimum requirement for healthy families and communities,” said Charly Carter, executive director of Maryland Working Families, after calling on Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake to place a moratorium on the announced water shutoffs of nearly 23,000 residential customers. “And it’s not lost on us that we can have a water feature out here in front of City Hall when so many families are facing essential water from their taps being turned off.”
Advocates have been criticizing the city for weeks now over what they see as disparate treatment by the Department of Public Works of delinquent residential and commercial customers. Though the city has announced that delinquent commercial clients will face water shut-offs just like residential customers, Chow admitted at the press conference that while 350 residential customers have seen their water shut-off by the city so far this year (as of April 16), no commercial customers had received the same treatment. Of the 350 residential shut-offs, Chow said 132 accounts had been restored within one week, ostensibly because the customer either paid off her delinquent bill or made some sort of arrangement to do so.
At the demonstration, Fr. Ty Hollinger of Interfaith Worker Justice of Maryland, pressed the city for its failure to go after commercial accounts with the same zeal that residential customers face.
“Our mayor says that everyone must pay their fair share for water, and so we ask, ‘really?’ ‘Everybody paying their fair share?’ How can our mayor say it is fair for hard working Baltimore families to have their water shut off to their homes for being as little as $250 behind on their water bills, while billionaires like Ira Rennert and his R.G. Steel Plant could run up an unpaid water bill of over $5.4 million?”
The city only recently began targeting commercial customers for shut-offs over delinquent accounts, announcing the new policy on March 27. The failure to do so in the past, and the acknowledgment by city officials that delinquent commercial customers account for $15 million of the nearly $40 million in past due payments owed Public Works, has given advocates ammunition in attacking the shut-off policy, especially in a city with a history of problems where the accuracy of its billing for water usage is concerned.
Among the demands made by demonstrators on April 16, was that the city attempt to collect all the outstanding debt owed by commercial customers first before targeting any residents for collection.
“We’ll keep coming back, Mayor Rawlings-Blake, until the (residential) turn-offs stop,” declared Carter towards the end of the demonstration. “We want to keep the water on.”
“Keep the water on,” chanted those present in response.
ralejandro@afro.com