Trying to fix one errant commercial sewer account has turned into a quagmire for the Kuna City Council with the realization that dozens of accounts may be amiss and the city’s entire sewer assessment program needs overhauling.

“If ever there was a Pandora’s box, this is it,” City Attorney Richard Roats told the City Council Tuesday night. “Every time we turn over a stone, two more arise.”

Last year, during an audit of city sewer capacity, the city engineer discovered an anomaly — an address with a commercial building permit was recorded as having a single residential sewer connection. The address belonged to a restaurant built in 2006 and co-owned by Mayor Greg Nelson.

The city also discovered it had been charging Nelson’s commercial property the basic residential sewer rate of $24.65 a month since 2006, not the higher rate it would collect for a 200-seat restaurant/lounge.

The issue prompted the city to do a cursory review of other commercial accounts, and the anomaly turned out not to be an anomaly. The review revealed a pattern of missing records, and inconsistencies in connection fees and monthly sewer charges for permits issued prior to 2005.

“You simply cannot make sense of how these were calculated,” Roats said.

IT GETS WORSE

In 2005, to make sewer fees more equitable, the city started using a new formula to calculate sewer connection fees and monthly rates.

But on Tuesday, City Council members said they had just learned that sewer assessment formula might not be valid because the council never approved it.

“I can find no evidence of it being adopted,”said Roats.

It could be difficult for the city to try to collect back charges based on a document the council never adopted.

IMPOSING HIGHER RATES

Using the now-in-question formula, the city said last fall that Nelson owed $36,000 in uncollected sewer connection fees.

Nelson, who served as Kuna mayor from 1983 through 2003 and was elected to the post again in November, said that he reached an agreement with the city in 2004 and paid the all required building permit fees. It was the city’s responsibility to find the documentation, he said.

The city could find no records that sewer and water connection fees had been assessed and paid when Nelson’s building permit was issued. The matter was shelved until after the election, when the new City Council was tasked with resolving Nelson’s sewer connection issue.

On Tuesday night Nelson left the council chambers while the council discussed his restaurant’s sewer account.

The council unanimously voted to increase the monthly sewer rate for Nelson’s restaurant from $24.65 to $98.60. Nelson did not argue with the council’s decision.

Because of missing or incomplete city records and the likelihood other commercial customers are in same boat as Nelson, the council decided not to pursue any back charges, including the city staff’s initial sewer connection assessment of $36,000.

“I am not interested in any retroactive charges,” Councilwoman Briana Buban-Vonder Haar, an attorney, said.

Buban-Vonder Haar recommended the council hold a workshop to update and approve its sewer connection fees and then decide if its wants to evaluate the city’s nearly 200 commercial accounts.

Under city code, nonresidential sewer connections “shall be re-evaluated following one full year of discharge and the connection fees and monthly user fees adjusted if appropriate.”

So the city is within its rights to re-evaluate its commercial sewer accounts and increase or decrease the monthly rate if warranted.

A SERIOUS BACKLOG

Councilman Doug Hoiland thinks the city should review all of its commercial sewer accounts — an arduous chore for staff.

“That would be a big task,” Hoiland said. “But I am afraid we’ve got a whole lot of inconsistencies here.”

For example, Arctic Circle uses between 220,000 to 345,000 gallons of water per month, but pays the same $73.65 monthly sewer rate as Fiesta Guadalajara, which uses between 23,000 and 35,000 gallons of water per month.

Arctic Circle has a much higher water bill — its water consumption is so high because it uses a water-cooling system — but its does not pay extra to dispose of that large volume of water.

Hoiland said he attributes the errors made several years ago, during Kuna’s building boom, to an overwhelmed or poorly qualified staff and not to any secret dealings.

“I don’t think there was any hanky-panky going on,” Hoiland said.

Cynthia Sewell: 377-6428