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Senator says water utility owes money

Mike Fasano says Aloha Utilities owes clients a larger refund from a rejected rate hike.

NEW PORT RICHEY - State Sen. Mike Fasano is putting pressure on Aloha Utilities to refund customers several hundred thousand dollars in payments made under increased rates for water. But the company said Friday that it already paid what was owed.

"He seems to think all the money placed in escrow (is) by definition due as refunds, and that's not accurate," said Aloha's attorney, F. Marshall Deterding.

Sen. Fasano, R-New Port Richey, sent a letter to Aloha president Steve Watford on Thursday saying the money is "morally and ethically the property of the customers who paid it" and asking that it be returned.

Aloha collected about $473,000 from customers in the form of a roughly 15 percent rate increase that began in November 2001.

Revenue from the interim rate adjustment was placed in escrow while the state Public Service Commission decided whether a proposed 55 percent rate increase was justified.

It ultimately rejected the increase, and ordered Aloha to make improvements to its system, which serves about 14,000 customers in southwest Pasco.

Aloha also was required to refund money paid under the interim increase. Fasano, an Aloha customer himself, announced in August that the $142,000 Aloha had refunded was not nearly enough.

In the past two months, Deterding said, Aloha has made refunds in the form of checks or credits. One residential customer told the Times that his refund amounted to $7.

If Fasano is correct, and all the money in the escrow account should go back to customers, the refunds will amount to more.

Customers have long complained about the quality and clarity of Aloha's water and some now contend that the company is making it difficult for a University of South Florida researcher to complete an independent analysis.

Watford did not return a phone call Friday seeking comment for this story.

Deterding, however, said Aloha is entitled to the funds because they represent revenue from a final rate amount approved by the state.

The PSC is expected to rule on the matter in December. PSC officials were unavailable on Friday. When Fasano first questioned the amount in August, a PSC attorney told the Times that he expected the PSC to recommend that Aloha return about $420,000 held in escrow.