Bad Business By Baltimore’s Department of Public Works

s an owner of multiple residential and commercial properties in Baltimore City, I was not surprised to hear recently that the Department of Public Works had been recklessly overcharging the city’s water bills for the past…I don’t know how many years. Not surprised because I’ve been the recipient of a number of eyebrow-raising bills myself. What is surprising, is that something like that could happen.

As The Baltimore Sun reports, refunds to the tune of $4.2 million will be spread among 38,000 Baltimore City and County households. This all stems from an audit that found that over the past three years 70,000 households had been overcharged. On the other hand, many lucky residents who had homes with new meters didn’t receive any bills over a three-year-period. 

In response, the Department of Public Works is tripling the size of its complaint department staff, and plans to revamp the water meters and the “40-year-old” billing system…but it’s going to take three to four years.

Baltimore’s got a lot of great things going for it, but with its taxes, crime, school system, roads, and fair share of corrupt politicians, do we really need to add water to the list?