SAN DIEGO — Nearly a year passed before Point Loma resident Jerry Greene received his water bill.
He thought his wife had set up auto-pay to have the water bill automatically deducted from their account. Unfortunately, Greene's wife thought the same.
Then, in November 2023, Greene received a notice from the Water Department informing him that something was wrong with his water meter and that the department was investigating his bill. During that time, Greene had no idea that he was not receiving bills. He had no idea that the city suspected a leak at his house. How could he? He had not received a notice or a bill for nearly a year.
When the notice finally did come, Greene and his wife did what thousands of other San Diegans tried to do; contact the water department to take care of it.
First, he tried to call.
The phone rang and rang and no one at the city department picked up. There wasn't an answering service and he wasn't allowed to leave a message.
So, Greene turned to email. He sent messages to the department. The emails didn't bounce back, making him assume that the emails were received.
Months transpired and Greene still had not received a bill. Unable to reach the department by phone or email, Greene turned to the old-fashioned way, getting into his car and driving to San Diego's Public Utilities Kearny Mesa offices.
Again, no luck.
"Where is the utility department for this city? I thought San Diego was one of the major players in the country as far as population and municipalities go," said Greene.
Greene is not alone in his questioning of the city's water department. Nor is he the only person in San Diego who is not receiving bills for water use.
CBS 8 has spent years working for you to investigate San Diego's Water Department and complaints over errant meter readings, misestimated water bills, and inadequate customer service.
For the past year, CBS 8 focused on thousands of water customers who, like Greene, were not receiving water bills.
CBS 8 wanted to know just how many others were not getting their bills.
Through a public records request the city told CBS 8 that as of December 2023, more than 25,100 water customers were not receiving bills due to many issues which include high water usage, low-water usage, misread meters and repeated estimated meter reads.
In August 2023, after CBS 8 ran a series of stories featuring water customers who received bills as high as $11,000 after not receiving any bills or notifications for months, San Diego's Director of the Public Utilities Department, Juan Guerreiro, publicly apologized for the city's mishandling of water bills and customer service lapses.
At the time, Guerreiro told CBS 8 that he and his department were working to start notifying customers when their bills were under investigation. More than one month later the city did in fact begin notifying customers that their bills were under investigation.
Yet, while the notifications were a step in the right direction, customers such as Jerry Greene have little to no direction as to what they should do if or when their bill is withheld.
"You would think if you didn’t pay your bill for 12 months, you would get some warning letter, you would get shut-off notices," Greene told CBS 8. "But, I haven’t received anything. It’s as if we don’t exist."
In response, CBS 8 once again invited the city to sit down and explain why so many bills are getting withheld and what the city is doing to address it.
On February 8, Director Guerreiro did just that with CBS 8's Shannon Handy.
As for the backlog of withheld bills, Guerreiro told CBS 8 that the city has chipped away at that number, reducing the number of outstanding bills from 25,120 in December of 2023 to 24,612 as of February 9, 2024.
"First, we want to thank customers for their continued patience," said Guerriero. "We're focused on this backlog. We've been able to address new bills coming in and not adding to that backlog. That means continuing to chip away at it in an effective manner. We have a lot of information on our website for those customers who have received notices. They can go online and submit a meter reading online to help with the review process."
Guerriero says he understands the frustrations but the department is now meeting industry standards.
"We've continued to implement improvements," said Guerriero. "Since December, over 98% of our bills are going out on time now, and that meets the industry standard. And that's important to make sure that the number of bills that are being held isn't growing."
Added Guerriero, "But, it does take time. Sometimes these investigations or account reviews can be complicated and they take time. They take physical in-the-field evaluations. So it's important that we take this time to make sure the bills are accurate before they go out."
For customers such as Greene, he feels unheard. When asked what his next step was during our interview, Greene said, "You’re it. CBS 8. You’re my next step."
CBS 8 reached out to the city asking about Greene's bill.
After CBS8 shared Greene's story with Public Utilities, he said a spokesperson reached out the next day. He has since received his missing bills and a promise from the city that he would not be charged any late fees or fines.