HILLCREST — Hillcrest trustee Tim Ball addressed his fellow trustees Wednesday evening, taking the podium during public comment and speaking as a resident of the village regarding his current water bill.

Ball said his bill was outrageously high and requested to only pay his past due amount, which was less than $10. He pleaded with the village to hold off any collection activity while the matter is in litigation, stating he has also retained a lawyer over the matter.

With bill in hand, Ball questioned the validity of the charges. He also held up a handwritten letter from another resident he states is in the same position.

“I believe this is excessive… I don’t want to get into how much it is, but it is unbelievable and I don’t think this is right,” Ball exclaimed. “I don’t know who is in charge of this. We didn’t even vote on any of this. This was just done arbitrarily and capriciously I believe. I’d like to pay the past due balance of $9.75 and ask the other amount be put off until a judge can decide this thing.”

At a recent board meeting, village consultant Bernie Mrugala stated several water meters in the village were not in working order. He explained at the time he believed this could be leading to under-collecting of funds for the water department since the bills were reflecting an estimated usage and not actual consumption. Mrugala recommended the village begin replacing the faulty meters as soon as possible.

Trustee Jason Fore acknowledged the conversation Mrugala had with the board a couple of months ago. He stood with Ball’s request to hold off pursuing collection activities.

“My understanding of this is there is a list of residents in excess of 40-plus households that weren’t reporting meters over a period of at least 10 years,” Fore began. “The meters weren’t reading for an extended period of time. To my knowledge, this came to light just within the last couple of months when Bernie gave us the report of how many households weren’t actually reading. Now we are installing new equipment so we can read them, but now we are going back and charging the residents… I don’t know if we can go back and charge for something that we knew about and that we weren’t collecting data from.”

Ball echoed Fore’s comments, stating he has paid his bills in full and again reiterated his request.

“All I’m asking is that this exorbitant amount of money be put aside, I pay my past due amount and not be put into some type of collections,” Ball said. “I’m asking this part be put aside until Paul (Chadwick) and my lawyer and any other lawyers that come as a result of this can decide.”

Hillcrest village’s attorney Paul Chadwick first questioned if Ball had brought the matter to the attention to the water department, to which Ball answered ‘yes.’

“Was it a question that the meters in place were not reading correctly or not reading at all,” Chadwick questioned.

Acting president Rich Elliott confirmed the water meters were not reading at all.

“And we knew about that?” Chadwick pressed.

Ball confirmed that he had been told his bills were estimated for the last five years.

“When Bernie brought this forward I specifically asked how we were addressing these residents and we were told that they were estimating them,” Fore interjected. “I asked during that very village meeting, how do we estimate? Based on what? Well, we weren’t estimating them, we charged what we knew we could charge and that was it. And we knew about these properties for several years and never did anything.”

Ball added he never received a water bill stating he could potentially pay arrears due to estimated reading.

“I received a personal letter from a resident who stated that she reported this issue in February of 2018 to the clerk, who told her somebody would be sent out and nobody showed up,” Fore added. “Some of these incidences have been reported and we still failed to follow through.”

The matter was discussed further in closed session under possible litigation, but no further action was taken.

“Unfortunately, because litigation was threatened, I am unable to provide any comment at this time,” Chadwick stated on Thursday morning.