City Hall: Staff Gave Delinquent Sewer Accounts Warning, July 27 Deadline

La Mesa city officials Wednesday said people on the delinquent sewer account list received a notice and a warning they had until July 27 to avoid a lien being placed on their property taxes.

Tuesday night, school board member Bill Baber said he hadn’t been contacted by the city on his failure to pay $407 in sewer bills and vowed to investigate the bill.

“If it’s a valid claim, I’ll take care of it,” Baber said after a school board meeting.

But as of 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, City Clerk Mary Kennedy said nobody on her staff or that of Finance Department director Sarah Waller-Bullock had been contacted by Baber, an attorney serving a third term on the La Mesa-Spring Valley school board and working as treasurer for several political campaigns.

On July 26, a unanimous City Council voted to send the delinquent account list to the county for collection. La Mesa aims to recoup $126,000 from about 270 residents, businesses and other property owners.

Kennedy also spelled out the process of how property owners came to be listed as delinquent accounts—with their names forwarded to the county Recorder’s Office for inclusion on property tax bills.

“The city mails out notices to property owners any time a sewer account is closing or 60 days’ delinquent with a balance due,” Kennedy said via email. “A Notice of Impending Lien was mailed on June 1, 2011, to all property owners who had delinquent sewer accounts on their property.”

Kennedy said the Notice of Impending Lien explained that full payment of the delinquent charges needed to be made before the deadline date of July 27 to avoid a lien.

“If the property owner wants to obtain a Release of Lien prior to their property tax bill, they must pay the full amount of the delinquent sewer charges plus a $15.00 county administrative fee to the city, or they can request a Release of Lien once the delinquent charges have been paid in full with their property taxes,” she said.

People had until June 30 to avoid being on the posted list, she said, adding that “there are no ‘second chances.’ The Notice of Impending Lien was mailed June 1. The due date was June 30, and final date July 27.” 

A 2008 sewer account list also defined the process, and the same steps were taken in 2011, she said.

“Yes, the process has remained the same,” Kennedy said and Waller-Bullock confirmed separately. “The Notice of Impending Lien is mailed at the beginning of June. The due date is June 30 (or closest business date) and final date is the day after the public hearing in July.”