The Astoria City Council got an earful Monday night on the citys water service rules by landlords who think its unfair.

The ordinance, established at the end of last year, requires a landlord to be responsible for a tenants water bill if the bill goes unpaid.

After considerable discussion from visitors, council members decided 4-1 to keep the rules as they are.

Finance Director Mark Carlson estimated the city loses $30,000 a year from unpaid water bills when residents skip town, after collection agencies do their work, collections only 15 percent of unpaid bills on average.

The city provides utility service just like the power company does, the gas company, and everybody else, audience member and landlord Charlie Baldwin said. But you guys, youre saying that you are losing $30,000 a year. I dont think you lost $30,000, you just didnt collect $30,000. And since you didnt collect that, you decided, Why dont we steal it from somebody else because we want $30,000 from somebody. I dont pay my tenants water bills, I dont pay their grocery bills, I dont pay their gas bills or their electric bills.

I see four guys up here that are in business for themselves, three guys I know for sure, and I suppose you guys, when you send out your invoices for your customers, 100 percent of your bills get paid? Is that right, Mr. Warr?

Russ Warr, city councilman and owner of Astoria Granite Works smiled and replied, Thats the plan when running a business.

But Baldwin said when a tenant skips town, he is out the rent, damages and now the water bill, too.

You guys want to create this utopia where, Hey, all the bills get paid in my business. I want to be the only business in the world that gets 100 percent payback on all my bills, Baldwin said. The point is, not everybody pays their bills and not everybody in business gets paid for all their invoices they send out. How you can say you lost $30,000, you didnt lose $30,000. You just wish you could collect $30,000 more.

Baldwin added that the city is looking for a fall guy on the unpaid bills.

The ordinance was brought before the council in September, after which four public hearings were dedicated to the issue.

Public comments in opposition to the ordinance were not present during those discussions, with the voices speaking to the issue in favor of the ordinance, including a representative from the Clatsop County Rental Owners Association.

The resolution was adopted and imposed at the end of last year.

Councilman Peter Roscoe asked for the decision to be re-examined Monday night.

Port Commissioner Floyd Holcom was also in the audience and said he didnt feel that the city, which gets water for nothing from the reservoirs, should charge their best advocates and customers, the landlords trying to bring people to the community, for something they didnt use.

The challenge I have is the challenge that Ive had for years, Holcom said. You want us to go out and tell people to move to the city of Astoria. You want us to go out and explain how great this city is to live in because our forefathers had thought about the water reservoirs and the amount of water collected.

We (have) abundant resources. … For some reason, we are paying more per gallon than most cities in Oregon. Thats a challenge for us as landowners to get people to come here because you have to pay more for water. The challenge is that were out there being your representative, being your marketer, but were not sharing in the cost here, when unfortunately someone skips out of town.

He said if he is selling a product, he should get a discount like others, or in this instance, a break.

Floyd, you are 100 percent correct. The water doesnt cost us anything, Mayor Willis Van Dusen said. Nine months out of the year, we let it run off the dam and just into the river. But its the delivery of the water thats expensive. … We do add chlorine to the water, there is a cost for it. If theres a water break in the middle of the night, we have to pay for that repair. The actual H2O doesnt cost us anything.

Van Dusen added that caring for the water system and system projects, including the Combined Sewer Overflow projects that cost millions, have to be paid for somehow.

We try to make the public works as efficient as possible and thats what we charge the rates for. And thats whats different than a gas company, and thats whats different than Pacific Power. And thats whats different than a private business.

Private businesses charge more than the overhead costs to make a profit. That profit allows them to write off bad debts, Van Dusen said.

There is no right answer, there really isnt. We can leave it the way the policy was, and those who dont pay force all of us, those low-income people who cant afford it, theyre paying more, were all paying more to make up for that deficit, he said. Or we can go to the way that is proposed now that weve been trying for a few months and, just like you said Mr. Baldwin, were looking for a fall guy. Youre right. This council decision was to make the fall guy the property owner because they are making a profit off of those who are making a bad debt.

Some of you arent going to like it, but I think we should leave the policy exactly where it is.

Not all landlords felt it was a bad idea.

Kent Easom of Easom Property Management said he is OK with the ordinance because he charges enough of a deposit to cover water bills.

Coleen Tilley said she saw this as two problems and was not happy she was notified six months after the ordinance was instated.

The way that I knew about this is that when I received my water bill in May, my latest tenant, who moved in in February, I had his bill, too, Tilley said, who explained she came down to City Hall to talk about the bill, and was given a new packet of information on the ordinance.

Ive had a rental agreement with Pacific Power, with Northwest Natural Gas, with the city since 1991. And that was my first notification.

Tilley said she felt as a property owner in the city, she should have been notified before the meetings and in a more personal letter.

Im bad. I did not read it in The Daily Astorian, but I see this as two issues. One, youre covering up not notifying us until after the fact, even though the letter says youre being proactive. And two, I have been a water customer for the city of Astoria for 25 years. And I have always paid my bill. To my knowledge, none of my renters have ever skipped out on their bill. But Im being coerced into basically co-signing a loan.

Van Dusen agreed with her that the landlords should have been notified.

But he did voice his objection to reversing the ordinance.

Baldwin said the city of Portland no longer has a similar water bill ordinance, although Astoria leaders used other cities that did have the rule as the example as to why they would have the rule.

I think they dropped it because they finally realized how dishonest it was, Baldwin said of Portland.

Sonja Cox also voiced her opinion, saying she has owned rental properties in the past. In my experience, Cox stated, I believe its the property owners responsibility to collect a deposit and they have 30 days to return the deposit to the tenant and if they do not pay the water bill, then the water bill is deducted from that deposit. And I think its perfectly fair. Somebody ought to be responsible for it. And who else but the property owner? If they have good tenants, the tenants will pay the bill. If they dont, it comes out of the deposit.

Tilley said if she had been notified before the issue passed, she would have at least upped her deposit to cover the costs, because the deposit generally goes to cover the last month of rent for the tenant who gives a 30-day notice.

A lot of times, when they give a 30-day notice, they arent paying that last month of rent, she said.

When it came time for the council to offer direction, Roscoe was the only councilman who said he would make no suggestion or decision. The other four members of the council Warr, Karen Mellin, Arline LaMear and Van Dusen said they wanted to keep the ordinance just the way it is.

Im not saying its perfect, but lets at least give it a chance, Van Dusen said.