Will City Council help David Parris?
Colorado Springs city officials unleashed a torrent of backlash when they created the Stormwater Enterprise.
Even though the fees were set to zero last year, the enterprise is still a source of resentment.
For homebuyer David Parris, the enterprise is a source of frustration.
“I just received a letter from the Stormwater Enterprise stating that I owe them about $55. This fee would have been from 2009 or earlier,” Parris wrote in an email to The Gazette.
“The problem is that I purchased this house in June of 2010, six months after City Council abolished this fee. They did not place a lien on the house for this money or else it would have showed up and been settled during the closing process,” he wrote.
The subject line of Parris’ email was: “Revenge of the Stormwater Fees?”
Parris agreed to share his email with Gazette readers and City Council members.
“While the fee they say I must pay really is not that big, I am more concerned that a lot of other new homeowners are being treated the same way,” he wrote.
Here’s the rest of his letter, with a few minor edits:
I have tried to contact them about this but only get a prerecorded message that basically says pay up or we will assess interest and penalties. I have left the two phone messages and not been called back. I have even emailed them and they have not replied to those either. This letter was dated on the 19th and it states I must pay this within ten days or else, and I received their letter on the 21st.
I imagine that there are a fair number of new home owners who have received their own letter from the city. So I am sure this issue is bigger than my complaint. I was wondering if you would be the right person at the paper to look into this question or should I write to someone else?
I was not against the Stormwater Enterprise, but I really don’t think what they are doing is legitimate. I did not incur those fees, nor was I informed of them when we purchased the property (and it would be silly to expect a home buyer to intuit what unpaid fees the previous owner incurred). For the city to expect me to pay a fee that is over two years old because they could not collect from the previous owner is outrageous. They are basically saying I have to track that person down and get the money because they couldn’t or just shut up and pay them for him.
Any help, suggestions, or light you could shed on this issue would be greatly appreciated.
David Parris
I do understand that money was required to perform certain maintenance on Fountain C reek. I was surprised when the city government taxed the rain water that runs off my roof.
I am outraged to everyone that is fighting this tax did not ask the following question.
-Is it legal for a city government to impose a tax on a state property?
As I understand who owns the taxed rail water, the Colorado State does.
//www.gazette.com/articles/water-55602-rain-bill.html
If the city needs to collect taxes on this rain water, they should send the bill to the state
You confuse water as a natural resource (apportioned to downstream and groundwater owners) with the liability posed by storm events and EPA violations.
I intend to bring action against the city council both collectively and individually for abuse of office under the color of law for willfully and criminally attempting to subvert the provisions of the TABOR Amendment to the Colorado Constitution if they take any negative action against me (e.g. derogatory credit submission or place illegal tax assessment on my property tax bill (will include ELP County in this case).
I expect equal treatment under the law by being “forgiven” just like the 10,200 other personal accounts and El Paso County and the USPS (will be researching the City Utilities and Memorial Hospitals status as part of discovery too!).
I do not deny the city NEEDS the funds (as they’ve rubber stamped all the pay and benefit increases for city employees and especially City Utilities etc for decades) nor that the drainage improvements are NEEDED.
Had the council approached this LEGALLY and complied with the TABOR requirements, given a definitive ending date for the assessments etc., I’d have voted for and paid the TAX. Since they willfully, with malice and aforethought, and intentionally attempted to subvert the CO Constitution, I will NOT submit to their tyrannical and criminal act without putting up the biggest fight possible. And then I will continue to resist for YEARS AND YEARS til death do we part.
Rebellion against tyrants is obedience to God – submitted by Ben Franklin as suggestion for motto on US Seal.
Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. — William Pitt