Anger over DWP bill hits a high-water mark

Anita Cultrera Stern insists that the only flood she’s experienced was the torrent of outrage she felt last August when she opened her DWP bill.

Instead of the normal $20 or so worth of water she typically uses at her Woodland Hills home during two-month billing cycles, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power charged her $829.82 for June and July 2009.

The billing statement explained that Stern appeared to be using 2,295 gallons of water a day, contrasted with the 61 gallons she had used daily during the same period the previous year.

When she called the DWP to complain about the bill, officials told her she must have a major leak somewhere at her Tosca Road residence. She hired a plumber to look, but he could find nothing amiss.

Stern, 68, said the DWP then speculated she was overwatering her lawn. Her gardener assured her that sprinklers ran only 5 minutes every four nights.

Stern admits to becoming “livid” and delivering a tongue-lashing to a DWP worker who suggested that perhaps “my refrigerator was too full.” She complained to her City Council representative, Dennis Zine.

Convinced that the city had made a mistake, Stern requested a departmental hearing. In the meantime, she said, a DWP official told her husband — 85-year-old Sidney Stern, who is currently in a convalescent hospital after surgery — that the couple could forgo paying any DWP bill until the dispute was cleared up.

On May 6, Stern went to the hospital for what she expected to be knee surgery. Doctors ended up replacing her hip instead; she was sent to a physical rehabilitation center May 9.

In the meantime, DWP officials decided Stern’s service would be cut off June 6 if the overdue bill wasn’t paid. They sent a sent a certified letter May 12 advising that her hearing was scheduled for 11 a.m. on June 4 in downtown Los Angeles.

But Stern’s house-sitter was not allowed to sign for the certified letter and it went undelivered.

When Stern returned home Friday afternoon from rehab, she learned that the DWP viewed her as a no-show for the hearing on the billing dispute.

“They said they wouldn’t turn off my electricity and water until after there was a hearing,” she said. “I was still in rehab at 11. I wasn’t released until after noon.”

Zine said the hearing is key to resolution of the dispute. “We can’t adjust the bill in this office. Bottom line is she needs that hearing,” he said.

DWP spokesman Joe Ramallo said the unusual circumstances surrounding Friday’s missed meeting will allow Stern’s hearing to be rescheduled. In the meantime, this week’s utility shutdown was also postponed, he said.

Ramallo said other factors besides overwatering or leaky pipes can lead to an unusually high water bill. Usage is sometimes estimated on the basis of previous bills. The DWP bill is adjusted upward or downward the next time the meter is actually read.

In any event, Stern and her husband should have kept paying their current water and power charges while the dispute was dealt with, Ramallo said. He said the department works with its customers to avoid service cut-offs.

Home from the rehab center, Stern was grateful to be back with her dogs, Shih Tzus Zoe and Hunter, and for the reprieve from losing service. She said she intends to pay the current DWP charges, which now stand at $2,005.29.

“I’ll also watch my Italian temper,” she said.

bob.pool@latimes.com