The City Council has reached a legal settlement for the recovery of delinquent water and sewer bills owed from Orange Blossom Villa and Fillmore Convalescent Center---businesses operated by former Council Member Eduardo Gonzalez and his wife. The issue has been one that has frustrated the City Council as Gonzalez continued to face mounting delinquencies on his account, yet the City Council was sensitive to turning off water service to many elderly residents who lived at the facility and over 100 employees who would likely be unemployed if the business were to be shut down due to a lack of water and/or sewer service.

The settlement, agreed to by the City Council at Tuesday night’s meeting, was reached with the owner of the properties, Kenneth Dunton as Trustee of The Kenneth V. Dunton Trust, who in turn, leases the properties to Gonzalez for the businesses. Dunton told the City that he had been unaware of the delinquencies until the City brought it to his attention a few months ago. The agreement calls for Dunton to make an immediate payment to the City of $123,776.08 to cover all City billings that had not been paid by Gonzalez for water and sewer service through April 30, 2013, and that Dunton would accept responsibility for all water and sewer fees from May 1, 2013 for the Trust and for an anticipated new lessee for the property. Dunton had proposed, and the City accepted, that the City waive late penalties and interest accumulated on the account similar to an “amnesty” program that the City provided to all local residents and businesses earlier this year for those who were delinquent and wished to immediately bring their accounts current. For Dunton, this represented a waiver of $80,288.38 in penalties and interest, although all of the City’s “hard costs” are recovered by the City in the agreement. Additionally, under the terms of the agreement, Dunton will pay $2500 to the City to recover costs incurred by the City in the collection process.

“The City Council is pleased to have this issue behind us,” stated Mayor Rick Neal on behalf of the Council. “It is an issue which we all felt strongly needed resolution, yet there was a recognition that Mr. Gonzalez did not have the personal resources to fully pay what he owed to the City, and we had a major concern over the possible relocation of some of our most vulnerable residents if we forced the convalescent facilities into a possible bankruptcy. We greatly appreciate Mr. Dunton stepping in to offer a resolution to this dilemma. It brings to a closure one more issue that this City Council has been tackling on our road to economic recovery, and I am hopeful of other financial issues being favorably resolved in the near future.”
Rigo Landeros
Acting City Manager