Utility clients may get refund

An investigation into possible overcharging could mean money back for Aloha Utilities customers.

By ALISA ULFERTS

© St. Petersburg Times, published July 8, 2000

Aloha Utilities could be ordered to refund customers as much as $270,431 if the state decides the utility overcharged its customers in 1999.

Staffers with the Public Service Commission are urging board members to conduct a full investigation into whether Aloha, which serves the Aloha Gardens and Seven Springs area, earned too much money last year. The PSC board is scheduled to vote on the issue Tuesday.

The amount of refund, if approved, for each Aloha customer was not included in the PSC staff report released late last month. But dividing the number of customers by the amount of suggested refunds would appear to give the 3,103 water customers in Aloha Gardens a $43.18 refund; the 2,822 wastewater customers in Aloha Gardens a $29.79 refund and the 9,242 water customers in Seven Springs a $5.67 refund.

Wastewater customers in Seven Springs would not see a refund because Aloha is actually seeking a rate increase for that area.

"How can Aloha ask for a wastewater rate increase when it's been found that they are overcharging?" asked state Rep. Mike Fasano, R-New Port Richey, an outspoken critic of Aloha. "It is my hope that the commission adopts these recommendations to fully investigate the fiscal situation at Aloha Utilities and that no further consideration be given to any rate increases until all of Aloha's customers receive the refunds they deserve," Fasano added.

Officials with Aloha called the PSC recommendation unfair, saying a cursory inspection the state conducted last fall of all utilities showed Aloha was within an acceptable profit-margin range.

Furthermore, said Aloha attorney F. Marshall Deterding, the PSC will not allow the company to impose an interim rate increase on its wastewater customers while its request for a permanent increase winds through the system, even though the state agrees it was undercharging those customers.

"We were a little taken aback," Deterding said.

- Staff writer Alisa Ulferts covers Pasco County government. She can be reached in west Pasco at 869-6244 or (800) 333-7505, ext. 6244. Her e-mail address is ulferts@sptimes.com.

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