Monday, Aug. 30, 2010

Jacob Aguirre: City can't track bill paid by cash

II recently bought a Los Banos home and I have been paying my water bill every month. This month I received my statement and it was around $127 for a single man in a five-bedroom home. I never wash my car at home, I do laundry once a week, I have a small lawn and a small garden. That seems like a lot of money for one month.

I called the city and spoke to a clerk. I asked why my bill was so high. She said I didn't pay my bill last month. I told her I did. She asked how I paid. I said cash. She stated that it's not in the system and asked if I had the receipt or the date I made the payment because, if I did, she could look it up in the system for any double payments made to the wrong account on that date.

But, because I didn't have the date it would take forever for her to check the entire system for double payment for the whole month.

I thought this issue had been corrected already and we had a good system in place to ensure our money isn't stolen and that our payment could be traced if made by cash or debit card?

I had to give my debit information to the city, so I could pay this bill again. Now I must monitor my account transactions to ensure that my card isn't used by an employee from the city? I know, most likely not. I'm pretty sure that all employees that work for the city are good people. So, please don't take this the wrong way.

I just wanted to raise an awareness that we should have some kind of system in place to account for all bills being paid with or without cash.

Jacob Aguirre

Los Banos