by KAY RICHTER
Kyle officials are asking a state agency to review Monarch Utilities’ authorization to provide public water service after residents of eastside neighborhoods complained of a peculiar billing problem.
Monarch customers in the Amberwood and Indian Paintbrush subdivisions opened their bills at the beginning of the month to find they were listed as residents of Uhland instead of Kyle. The distinction is important because Monarch customers in Kyle pay substantially less than Monarch customers outside the city limits.
“My first thought was that they were trying to finagle their way out of having Kyle” in their service area, said Kay Rush, an Amberwood resident who said Monarch customer service representatives initially refused to change her billing address to Kyle.
A spokesperson for SouthWest Water Co., which recently acquired Monarch, did not respond by presstime to the Hays Free Press’ written questions.
The city and the utility have had an adversarial relationship in recent years dating to Kyle’s objection to Monarch’s proposed 40 percent rate hike in 2008. Through a mediation process, the rate increase was kept at 28 percent for residents of Kyle; residents outside of Kyle saw the entire 40 percent increase.
In response to Rush’s and other residents’ complaints, the Kyle City Council drafted a letter to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality that said, “Many of the residents in these subdivision believe that this current billing ‘error’ is suspect given its timing. The city of Kyle will not tolerate any attempt to deprive us of the right to defend our residents against a proposed rate hike.”
The letter asks TCEQ commissioners to reconsider Monarch’s certificate of public convenience and necessity, its authorization from the state to provide public utility services.
“We ... have become increasingly aware that the poor service and low water quality provided by Monarch, along with the exceedingly high rates charged to their customers, may warrant review,” a draft of the letter states.
The average Monarch customer pays $4.86 per 1,000 gallons of water compared to $2.60 charged by the city’s own water utility.
