Texarkana, Texas, City Council members will decide tonight if they believe Forest Point Apartment Homes has been significantly overcharged for sewer and water bills.
Since December, the council has been hearing Forest Point Apartment manager Claire Jaynes' allegations that Texarkana Water Utilities, which handles all water and sewer services for both sides of Texarkana, has overbilled the 104-unit complex because of faulty meters.
The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the board room at City Hall, 220 Texas Blvd. and is open to the public.
Both Jaynes and City Manager John Whitson have made presentations regarding the situation at Forest Point. Whitson has said Jaynes has only made partial payments on bills and that is not acceptable. Jaynes has raised concerns that TWU and the city have not properly heard her complaints.
"Based on untrue remarks made by Mr. Whitson to the press about Forest Point Apartment Homes, and our personal experience of TWU employees changing their stories, at this point in time I no longer have faith in TWU to inspect my lines without prejudice," Jaynes wrote in a Jan. 26 letter to Texarkana, Texas, Mayor Bob Bruggeman and Ward 4 Council member Dr. Brian Matthews. The apartment complex is inside Matthews' ward.
In the letter, Jaynes also offers to purchase a meter on her property, which would serve as a master meter to monitor the entire property on Kennedy Lane.
"In an effort to come to an unbiased opinion, I'm willing to put a meter, at our cost, inside my fence line on our four (inch) water line (I already have the permit)," Jaynes wrote. "This meter would be independent of our sub-meters, but the sub-meters should sure add up to the readings on the meter."
Jaynes writes she could have the installation made already, but asked for an extension of the final remarks about this issue be moved past tonight's meeting so she can have a month's billing cycle for reconciliation.
In an update, Whitson wrote the council regarding tonight's meeting, saying that he does not know what remarks Jaynes' is referring to.
"I don't know what untrue remarks that I made to the press," Whitson wrote. "I have spoken at great lengths with J.D. Phillips (interim TWU director) concerning the meter technicianstechnicians currently working at TWU. They are believed to be excellent employees with a high level of integrity. I don't believe that they have changed their "stories" as commented by Jaynes."
Whitson said Sunday that he remains convinced Jaynes' numbers are incorrect and that she owes the city money, not the other way around.
"Her method of estimating what she thinks she owes is something we could not readily accept that is credible," Whitson said. "We just think it is wrong. We depend on the meter because that is what we are supposed to do is to rely on city code. It says use the meter."
The council will also have a public hearing and take action on an item establishing a 90-day moratorium on the processing and approval of applications and permits for the placement of electronic, variable-message signs within the city. The topic has come up recently as both Church on the Rock and Landmark Pentecostal Church asked for approval on electronic signage for their churches.
The council approved both, but Ward 3 Council member Tina Veal-Gooch, who represents the area where Landmark is located, raised concerns that allowing the sign on Texas Boulevard was not in accordance with how the council voted in 2012 regarding that area being inside a historical district.
Whitson said the 90-day moratorium has already been approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission.
"When they are talking about establishing new rules on regulating electronic signs, they need time to do that," Whitson said. "They don't need any applications coming in before the rules are written, so that's why you want to establish a moratorium. That gives the City Council and the planning commission the time to establish the rules they want. That way people applying for a sign are not chasing a moving target."