Sign up for TPR Today, Texas Public Radio's newsletter that brings our top stories to your inbox each morning.
The San Antonio City Council will soon consider giving San Antonio Water System (SAWS) the authority to impose liens on properties whose owners are $25,000 or more delinquent on water bills.
The policy proposal, which passed through the council’s Municipal Utilities Committee on Tuesday, came after SAWS shut off water to several apartment complexes last year whose owners were delinquent, even though tenants properly paid their bills.
District 2 Councilmember Jalen McKee-Rodriguez and District 7 Councilmember Marina Alderete Gavito made the initial proposal to change how SAWS handles these kinds of situations, but the idea for imposing liens came from District 9 Councilmember John Courage.
Courage said he thought the threat of liens would be enough to get property owners to start paying their bills.
“I hope that by emphasizing this action as something that this committee recommends, and I think the entire council would get behind, that we don’t have to file a single one,” he said before Tuesday’s committee vote. “That everybody will realize the city and SAWS means business about this.”
There are currently 39 properties that have delinquent water bills of $25,000 or more in SAWS coverage zone — that includes customers outside of San Antonio city limits.
SAWS CEO Robert Puente had said in previous committee meetings about the shut offs that they were unique and were a result of bills piling up during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic — which SAWS had not attempted to collect — and that he didn’t anticipate those kinds of shut offs to happen again.
On Tuesday, Puente signaled that the liens would not be the first solution SAWS would reach for in the future, even if council gives the water utility the power to use it.
“The lien, obviously, it’s a tool in the toolbox,” Puente said. “It may not be the best tool, but it is a tool, and we will use it when appropriate.”
“What we really, really need is for these owners to just communicate with us,” he added. “They need more time — we will give them more time.”
The full council will soon consider the proposed policy, which also includes some updates to the city’s Proactive Apartment Inspections Program.
