Not that this really affects any of you. But dammit, it’s my blog. And if I want to use it to bitch about the fact that I have to go to McDonald’s to relieve myself because my toilets don’t work, well, by criminy that’s what I’m going to do.

I decided against the mother-grabbin’ expletives….

November 13, 2002

Chris Zimmerman
Chair
Arlington County Board

CC:

Charles Monroe
Vice Chair
Arlington County Board

Paul Ferguson
Arlingon County Board

Barbara Favola
Arlington County Board

Jay Fisette
Arlington County Board

Ron Carlee
Arlington County Manager

Dotty Dake
Arlington County Asst. Manager

Dear Mr. Zimmerman,

In late October of this year, I received a notice from Arlington city services letting me know that my water bill was a week overdue. Eager to correct my oversight, I looked to the bottom of my bill and saw a toll-free number I could call to pay my bill by credit card over the phone.

I called the number, but was led through a rather confusing automated menu. I wasnâ??t sure which of the options I should select, so I hung up and called Arlington city services for guidance. What I got was an impatient operator eager to get me off the phone. She told me three times to â??call the number and follow the directions.â?

Frustrated, I called the toll-free number again, and followed the options as I saw fit. Because I was uncomfortable with the set-up of the automated menu, I then called city services again to be sure my account had been credited. I got the same woman on the line. I asked if she could check to be sure my payment was properly processed.

â??Did you get a confirmation number?â? she asked.

â??Yes.â? I said, â??Do youâ?¦â?

She interrupted.

â??If you got a confirmation number, then itâ??s been credited.â?

â??Can you double check for me?â?

She didnâ??t pause long enough for me to even pretend she was actually checking.

â??I told you itâ??s been credited,â? she said.

She was curt, impatient, and I got the impression she was eager to do something other than talk a grieved Arlingtonite on the phone. Taking her at her word, I trusted my account had been credited and hung up. That was on October 21.

On November 5, city services slipped a notice under my door saying that my water would be turned off on November 12 unless my still-delinquent account was paid in full.

The next day — November 6 — I checked my bank account. My checking account had been debited $130.15 on October 24th â?? the exact amount of my water bill. The recipient was â??Commonwealth of Virginia,â? which at the time seemed logical to me.

I called city services again and asked why my account was still delinquent if my checking account had been debited. Again, the woman I talked to (not the same woman as on October 21) wasnâ??t the least bit friendly, helpful of accommodating.

I told her of my previous conversation with someone in her office. She promptly assured me that the conversation I had just relayed to her never took place. She said no one in her office would have told me my account had been credited without checking first. I told her thatâ??s exactly what happened, and that I had specifically asked that the woman double check, and that she wouldnâ??t. I was told that I was mistaken — no one in her office would ever have done that. She also asked for my confirmation number from the transaction. I told her that I had made the transaction over two weeks ago, and that because someone in her office had told me that â??it went through,â? I didnâ??t bother saving the confirmation number. At that point, she told me there was nothing she could do to help me.

I asked to speak with her supervisor. This time, I spoke with a man. He told me my only option was to get confirmation from my bank that my account had been debited. I hung up and called my bank. My bank told me that because the transaction in question wasnâ??t done on paper, they would have to manufacture a confirmation statement, which could take up to a week (not to mention that it would cost me $40).

I called city services again and spoke once again with the supervisor. I told him it would take me at least a week to get confirmation. He told me he would flag my account until I could get confirmation from my bank, ensuring that my water would not be turned off on November 12 as my â??last notice statementâ? had warned. To be sure, I asked again.

â??Are you sure that no one will turn my water off?â?

â??No one will turn your water off.â?

I left for a business trip to San Diego on November 7 through 11.

On November 12, my water was turned off.

Angry, I called the Arlingtonâ??s assistant county manager, Dotte Dake, and explained the situation.

In all fairness, my interaction with Ms. Dake was my lone positive experience in this whole imbroglio. She was friendly and at least aspired to be helpful. But I fear she was just as overwhelmed by the ineptitude of Arlington County government as I was.

Ms. Dake looked into the problem and assured me someone would be out to turn my water back on by late afternoon.

Several hours later â?? at about 9:00pm â?? someone from the city finally made it to the house. The man did some work in the access panel out by the road, and claimed to have switched the valve to allow the city water to come into my house.

But our faucets were still dry. He milled about the house a bit, and then left, saying there was nothing more he could do.

At this point, I called my landlord. She then called Tony Thompson, the technician on duty at the time for the water department. Tony told us there was nothing more the city could do â?? that the problem was probably a burst pipe or a clog in the plumbing of the house. The city had turned the water back on, he said. That we still werenâ??t getting water was our problem.

Considering that the plumbing was fine before the city turned off our water (just a day before), I had a hard time understanding why Tony now told my landlord and I that it was â??our problem.â? Also, the water meter wasnâ??t turning, meaning a burst pipe wasnâ??t a possibility.

The bottom line? A series of bad interactions with nonchalant Arlington County public servants resulted in my roommates and I not having water. Itâ??s been thirty-six hours now.

Early this morning I learned that on October 21, I had inadvertently pushed the wrong button on the automated payment system, which resulted in the $130.15 getting paid to the state of Virginia as a credit toward my income taxes, instead of the city of Arlington, as a credit to my water bill. Given the complexity of the automated system, I was worried at the time that something like that might have happened.

Thatâ??s why I called city services after making that payment to verify that my account had been credited. Had the woman from city services merely checked to see that my account had been credited â?? as I had asked — and not been in such a hurry to get me off the line, all of this could have been avoided. Had the city services supervisor who later assured me that my account had been flagged and that my water would not be turned off taken the time to actually flag my account and actually ensure that my water hadnâ??t been turned off, I wouldnâ??t have been required to spend the afternoon of November 12 on the phone, the night of November 12 trying to figure out how to get water flowing again, and the morning of November 13 driving to my health club to shower, then on the phone with city services, then back at my house awaiting a plumber.

To be honest, I actually expect inefficiency — and even incompetence — from my city/county government. Iâ??m not happy about it, but itâ??s a tradeoff of sorts for enjoying the close proximity to Washington, and for the culture and amenities of a near-suburb. Itâ??s also the inherent nature of bureaucracy.

But I donâ??t expect hubris, attitude, and exasperation when I merely ask the people my taxes and services payments support to, for example, verify that a paymentâ??s been received, or to refrain from shutting off service to my house when Iâ??ve been promised that they wonâ??t shut off service to my house.

Seems to me that thatâ??s not asking much.

Funny thing, I worked in Arlington from 1998 to late 1999. While there, I accumulated three parking tickets that I neglected to pay before moving to St. Louis. After I had moved, Arlington was competent and thorough enough to track me all the way to St. Louis, to find my address there, and to mail me a collection notice for the $45 I owed.

Itâ??s too bad Arlington isnâ??t as vigilant about delivering accountable, responsible local government as it is about collecting fines for parking violations.

Yours in Liberty,

Radley Balko

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 13th, 2002 at 5:39 pm by Radley Balko and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.