by Frank Schroth
Joe Lynch, director of the DPW, met with the Selectmen at their meeting on Monday to discuss a draft amnesty proposal for residents who have been receiving free sewer service. Mr. Lynch explained that the situation came to light. It was “serendipity.”
It was in the course of a routine real estate transaction that the real estate broker in filling out forms noticed that the family liquidating their property had not been receiving any sewer bills. Lynch said the DPW working with the Board of Health researched the issue and that there are 452 properties which raise some questions. Of those, 22 have been determined to have received service but no sewer bills. They have been notified. Lynch said there are 29 other properties that are “highly suspect.” Lynch noted that other than the 22 “we would be speculating with information from the homeowners.” The issue may go back to the early 70s, and Lynch said an open question was how far back to go in terms of collecting payment. John Flynn, Town Counsel, was also present and in discussing with Selectmen, it was decided to go back 6 years as that could be reasonably assumed as the statute of limitations.
The issue has kindled quite a bit of ire among homeowners in town as they feel they have been footing the bill for scofflaws. Member Hurley acknowledged that he had received “tons of e-mails on this.”
Lynch explained that there are numerous scenarios under which this may have occurred. While some homeowners may knowingly have hooked up for free service, that cannot be assumed. For example, a homeowner may have hired a contractor who never filed the necessary work. The homeowner would not be aware of this. Similarly, a home buyer may not have been aware that the sewer connection was not registered with the town. Lynch said it was important to validate that a home was connected and not receiving a bill. This can be verified easily if the homeowner grants entry to the residence with a dye test. Absent permission, the DPW can also run a smoke test to determine if a connection is present. Lynch noted that if the connection were not properly done it is possible that the house in question could fill up with smoke.
In reviewing the proposal, Member Hurley flagged wording in spots that he felt did not make sense, Those passages will be revised. The Selectmen agreed to a tiered system. Folks who have been clearly identified as receiving service and no bill will be required to pay for the service going back 6 years. Residents suspected of receiving service and no bill will be notified and asked to come forward and cooperate with the DPW. Residents who cooperate and are found to have received service without a bill will be billed for 4 years. The third tier is for residents who moved into a home within the 6-year period and did not necessarily know they should have had a bill. A resident who moved in two years ago would be billed for 2 years.
In addition, they agreed that the Assistant Town Administrator would serve as a hearing officer. Mr. Lynch did not say, nor did the Selectmen ask, if there were any institutional properties on the list. Lastly, Mr. Flynn said that a lien cannot be placed on a property until the owner fails to pay a bill. Since no bills have been issued, a lien is not an option at the moment for enforcing payment. The Selectmen will resume discussion of the issue later this month.
Mr. Lynch must and I am sure will release and publish the names of those who for whatever reason or situation have received free sewer service for a number of years.
I am less concerned with the names of individual homeowners who may fall into this category but I am more concerned that several long standing non-profit institutions may be on this list. Those institutions appeared initially on the DPW website but they have since been taken down.
A full explanation of this is required. As non-profits those institutions do no contribute directly and in some cases very little or not at all to Milton’s tax base. If it is now clearly and legally determined that these non-profits have not paid their properly assessed sewer bills like the rest of us then full restitutions to the full extent of the current law is required.
The credibility of these institutions is at risk. The DPW must state who they are and are not.
Rumors and speculations harms both those institutions and the generally fine work done by Mr. Lynch as head of the DPW.
In the end, there is no reason to expect less from Joe Lynch but he cannot let speculation run ahead of a deliberate and open investigation.
If I was not sent a real estate tax bill and then that was “discovered” would I only have to pay back six years worth of taxes?
If the previous property owner from whom I purchased the house had not paid taxes for 24 years, would the town not seek back taxes?
Where did the six years come from? Is this mandated in law?
What does this say of government operations in the Town of Milton? Is there no audit of these types of procedures? What about a system of checks and balances?
Who is on the list and how long are they on the list?
What other types of billable but not billed items for service are there?
And, last, how did this happen?
And thus starts an extremely necessary series of inquiries. In addition, I would ask:
1. when homes were sold, did the attorneys not check that all town bill were paid? Banks usually want to make sure that these are paid before the mortgage is finalized. So did the banks also not note this?
2. when the water and sewer bills were mailed, did the dept. itself not notice that water was received but no attendant sewer charges were on the bill? This lapse could easily have been captured by a computer program alert.
3. did those homeowners think sewer services were free?
Since the rest of the residents pay hundreds of dollars per quarter for water and sewage, and Milton has consistently been noted to have one of the highest rates in the area from the MWRA, I find it distressful that that this may have gone on for so long.
I really hope that the town does not release the names of those whose bills did not include charges for sewage. It is quite plausible that some of these people were not aware that they were being under-charged. If I moved to Milton and received a water bill, I’m fairly certain I would not notice if my bill was not itemized. (For the record, my bills did include sewage, and we have been paying them). Please do not make assumptions about the guilt or innocence of these people or institutions. The fact of the matter is, we don’t know if they were aware or not, and postulating does not accomplish anything productive.
I would, however, like to know what the Town plans to do to prevent this from happening again. That would be a productive conversation.