Residents in the Southfork Subdivision could have a potential resolution on the horizon regarding their water billing issues. The subdivision, located in unincorporated El Paso County at the northeast corner of Falcon Highway and Curtis Road, receives water from Bobcat Meadows Metropolitan District, which is managed by Dave and Debbie Stanford, who own H2O Consultants.This year, H2O Consultants came under fire from the residents of Southfork because of inconsistencies in their billing practices, according to the February issue of The New Falcon Herald.The article indicates several residents complained about being billed hundreds of dollars for one monthís water usage, without an explanation. They also complained about failed attempts to contact H2O Consultants to resolve their issues.In an email to the NFH, Dave Stanford wrote, ìThere were many billing issues. Reading the water users water meters, correcting recorded meter readings, adjusting water user accounts to reflect actual water use over time, requesting information from the water users regarding meter readings they had taken verses meter readings we had taken, unpaid amounts due and so on.îTo explain the ìbilling issues,î Stanford wrote: ìAn H2O Consultants, Ltd. employee, who is no longer with the company, estimated the water bills for those months. The water billing program will do this but if it is done incorrectly it will create a mess in the billing and it did. We have audited all of the water accounts in house and corrected those water bills. This has taken several months to complete and has been a major headache for the districts customers, H2O Consultants, Ltd. and the District Board. Monthly reading of the water meters has helped resolve the problems these estimated bills created.îStanford stated that H2O Consultants is now reading the meters monthly, which has resolved much of the billing issues. According to the email, homeowners were reading their own meters and sending the results to the district. Many misread the meters, he said. The practice had been initiated to reduce costs to the district.John Sabell, a Southfork property ownersí association member at large and liaison to the Bobcat Meadows water board, said part of the problem is with the water board itself. Only two of the five seats on the board are filled. David Griser and Gerald Nelson hold the seats.ìThe only source of information for the board has been H2O,î Sabell said. ìTheyíve (the board) never seen the other side of it.ìWhen you only have two members and you should have five, the answer is not to fire the board; itís to fix the board. They have put out elections every two years and no one answers the call.îSabell said at the Feb. 11 water board meeting that Griser and Nelson agreed to a stipulation presented by the property ownersí association: to circumvent an election, which could cost the subdivision about $10,000, the two would be re-elected to the board but would allow the POA to appoint three other people to the board.Paul Zimmerman, Southfork POA member at large, said, ìWe have a commitment from them that they (Griser and Nelson) will not deny those people.îThe new members the POA appoints will not be official members until after the May 6 election, Sabell said.Sabell said the crux of the issue continues to be an apparent lack of knowledge and ability on the part of H2O Consultants to handle the billing and accounting side of their management business. ìH2O should strictly be in charge of managing the water only,î he said. ìNot billing, not meter reading. That should be tied together to an outside company. They should only manage the water.ìH2O is under contract until December 2014. If we were to fire them right now, weíd have to pay them through the end of the year, and we donít have enough money to pay another company to handle things. When the new board comes on in May, if theyíre smart, theyíre going to immediately start putting out feelers to find another company.îStanford wrote in his email that the district has opted to install new automated meters so they can be electronically read. ìThe District board, working with H2O Consultants, decided in December of 2013 to install an automated, fixed base meter reading system. During the time it takes to change over to this new meter reading/billing system H2O Consultants, Ltd. is reading the water meters monthly at no additional cost to the district.îìThe new meters are on back order,î said Carrie Johnson, Southfork resident. ìWe think a lot of issues will be resolved with that. We are pushing to control how much human involvement goes into this (meter reading and billing). Everybody makes mistakes, but itís been continual. Enough of us have had enough.î
