Water Bill Adjustment--$650,000

</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[A bookkeeping error on April 10, 2008 led the City of Pinckneyville to underbill the Pinckneyville Correctional Center by $650,000 over the subsequent 15 months.

The error was discovered this week by City Clerk Fran Thomas.

Thomas said that when the meter at the prison turned over, like a car odometer does, a utility billing clerk dropped a zero when recording the numbers. The zeroes must be added in by hand.

The Pinckneyville Correctional Center pays $5.13 per 1,000 gallons for water and $4.15 per 1,000 gallons for sewer. At least a portion of the sewer charge is based on water usage.

The city has faced serious cash-flow difficulties over the last few years, at least in part because of delayed payments from the state for utilities at the prison.

Finance Commissioner Auggie Kellerman said at the last City Council meeting on Aug. 24 that the last payment received from the state was in April 20, 2009. The state still owes $284,626 in utility payments for the Pinckneyville Correctional Center. Also at that meeting, the council agreed to purchase three new hand-held meter readers at approximately $1,750 each and software costing $1,000.

Commissioner Dave Stone said that the current hand-held devices used by meter readers have become obsolete. There are problems downloading information and several routes have been lost. The units are about 10 years old.

Special Meeting Friday

Mayor Joe Holder has called a special meeting for 4 p.m. on Sept. 4 to discuss pending or probable litigation and appointment, employment or dismissal of an employee or officer.