Coming up, part two of my
exclusive interview with San
Diego's Public Utilities Direct.
What more he has to say about
the ongoing billing issues?
Guns, drugs and auto theft?
We're talking about Operation Sunrise.
Printers are fired up about conservatives.
We went to work for you and
heard back from the company.
11 billion gallons of water
wasted released from Lake
Odge's Dam over the past year
It was finally time for
Laura Chavez to step into the
spotlight. How you can attend Laura Fest
CBS8 News Live at six starts no.
Tonight we begin with more from
our exclusive interview with San
Diego's Public Utilities Directr
as he addresses and apologizes r
billing issues that have impactd
thousands of customers. Good evening.
I'm Jesse Pagan in for Marcelo .
I'm Carlo Chicato here at CBS8.
We've spent months investigating this
issue and working for you to get answers.
Shannon Handy sat down with
Juan Guerrero yesterday.
She has more on his regrets andt
customers can expect moving for.
We have worked tirelessly to
figure out why your bills aren't
being sent on time and why it's
taken years to fix a problem.
I asked while Guerrero those
questions and more.
Ultimately he apologized
and says the issue will
be resolved in September.
Well, it's
a large bill, $16,000.
It's a story we've been covering for months.
I just didn't notice that I
wasn't getting my water bill.
What did it add up to?
It added up to almost $2900.
San Diego Public Utilities custs
have been missing water bills, and then,
without explanation or warning,
they received a ton of bills all at once,
totaling thousands of dollars.
All these
bills. It's just crazy.
After several requests,
they finally sat down with a
director of Public Utilities,
Juan Guerrero, who offered this
message to those affected.
I want to apologize to our custs
who haven't received any notification
before their bills were held,
Guerrero explained.
Bills are hell when they're
being investigated for a
suspected leak or other issues.
During that time, people aren't
getting billed or notified,
and if they do notice and go one
to check their accounts is 0.
The $0.00 account balance is really there
because they haven't been billed yet.
Guerrero says the department dit
want to send out inaccurate bil,
which is why they sent none at .
Adding staffing issues led
to a backlog of held bills,
some of which were held for more than a year.
They've hired more people
to get through that,
but still have 10 open position.
As for not notifying customers,
he says they're outdated.
IT system is undergoing a complete overhaul,
which has prohibited them from
sending out automatic alerts.
He says the fix is coming in September
when letters will start getting
mailed out to customers impacte.
I question why they couldn't
notify customers using other
tactics in the meantime.
I'm not an IT person,
but I would think to put just
something on the front page of
rear home screen to say if you
haven't received a bill,
it could be because of
this would be an easy fix.
Yeah, I think that would be an easy fix
and I think it's a really good suggestion.
I also asked Guerrero why it's n
so long to address this problem,
which was highlighted in this
audit dating back to 2018.
The audit looked at ways the
department could improve and
listed 10 recommendations.
Notifying customers as one of them says
those other recommendations to priority,
noting the department has had
to undergo a lot of changes,
including hiring a new
management team in 2019.
It goes back to the volume of
issues and prioritizing and worg
through each one of the issues.
It's taken a lot more time than
any of us would have hoped,
but it's for very concrete
reasons because we want to make
sure the fixes are done well.
As for any regrets, Guerrero sae
doesn't have any, except for on.
We need to communicate a littlet
more frequently with our customers and
let them know what we're workin,
what we're doing. You're
confident in your staff and
the improvements you're making,
but can customers trust the Pubc
Utilities Department? Absolutel.
And our work doesn't end here.
We will check back and make sure
this issue is resolved in Septe.
The city's auditor is also scheduled to
get an update on their progress next month.
In addition to that,
we've reached out to your city leaders
to ensure they're paying attent.
Meanwhile, customers impact it can go on
payment plans to get their bills resolved.
Working for you,
I'm Shanna Handy for CBS8 and
that was a good suggestion, Sha.
Here at CBS8 we want to help soe
problems that are affecting you.
If there's something you'd
like us to look into,
e-mail us at working for you at cbs8.com.
Escondido police are investigatg
an incident between three teenae
girls and a North County Transit
District bus driver earlier this week.
We have video tonight and we want to warn
you it's pretty upsetting to watch the
San Pasqual High students farm miners
having not been charged with a crime.
So we've covered their faces.
Police say this all started
after school Tuesday.
The driver shut off the bus and
called his supervisor after a
disturbance broke out on the bu.
Police say a fight started between the
64 year old driver and at least two of
the girls when they tried to gef
the bus and he stood in the doo.
He eventually moved out of the y
but pushed one of the girls as e
got off the bus and that's when
police say another fight starte.
One of the girls is seen on camera punching
the driver and knocking him to the ground.
At least one other girl joined o
the fight and you see it there.
A male student and an off duty security
guard pulled the girls away from the driver.
They then ran away.
The Escondido Unified High
School District is working with
police in this investigation.
Anyone with information is
asked to call Escondido police,
so tonight we're hearing from Conservice,
a utility billing company.
Last week some of you renting cd
out Conservice for unfair billig
practices and a lack of transparency.
CBS8's Kirsten Holmes is working
for you and took your concerns
to the company last week.
Kirsten is live tonight after
getting a response from the com,
Kirsten
Okay. So we received a statement
from conservice that says in pat
quote on occasion a knowledge gp
between residents and the nuancs
of utility billing can happen.
They go on to explain the shared
utility billing structure that they use,
but the customers I talked to over the
past week say that the shared utilities
billing is not working for them.
What are you actually billing me
for? Anissa Yukich has been goig
back and forth with her apartme,
leasing office and can service e
20/21 when she noticed her utily
bills skyrocketed in one month
and $40 the very next month it's over $100.
How I go back home, I call
conservice and they're like, we,
we can't legally give you a breakdown
because it would entail or it wd
have everyone else's informatio.
She's not alone.
There's a class action lawsuit
against Conservice after renters
say they can't get individual
utility bills and when they ask
about getting an individual bil,
they can't get answers.
We went to work for you and read
out to conservice more than a wk
ago about the issue and they set
a statement that says, in part,
quote Most properties only havee
water meter coming into the community.
The individual units have to be
built separately by the propert,
and companies like Conservice work to
ensure that happens fairly and efficiently.
We share utility bill usage,
fee structure and historical consumption
data directly on each residents
bill alongside conservation tip.
I think that statement is completely yes,
Anisa says. She's asked for an
individual breakdown of her bill
several times and never got it.
When you see the conservice breakdown,
it says that it's literally
taking all 300 units and breakig
it down supposedly evenly.
We're paying for everyone else'.
Even the empty units.
In the statement to CBS8A,
Conservative spokesperson
says they are in part, quote,
dedicated to ensuring fair and
transparent billing on behalf or
customers and their tenants in e
with local regulations and lease terms.
And Nisa says it's those local
regulations and lease terms that
need to be addressed so that shn
finally get answers to her questions,
even if it's more than what they're charging.
Just give me transparency into my bill.
OK, so the class action lawsuit is still
making its way through the legal system.
Their next court appearance here
in San Diego is set for Novembe.
To seek and services. Full statement.
Head on over to our website, cbs8.com.
Now, Kirsten, I'm sure a lot of people
watching might be going to check
their emails, check their bills
to see if they use con service.
How would they know if they have
that service involved with
their paying their bills?
OK, so check this out, Jesse.
I used to be a conservice utili,
bill payer. It's very difficult to miss.
Whenever you receive your invoie
from your apartment or your utilities,
it says conservice right on the top headline.
So it's very hard to miss just
when you receive your bill.
If it says conservice,
then you are paying through
that utility billing system.
Jesse. All right.
Kirsten Holmes
staying on top of this one
now for more than a week at
this point. Kirsten, thank you.
Dozens of United Airlines flight
attendants picketed outside San
Diego International Airport tod,
demanding changes.
They say United has infrastructe
and staffing issues and they wao
negotiate a new contract with the company.
Ever since the pandemic ended,
United staffing at all levels of this
airline has been woefully pathe.
And whenever the wind blows the
wrong way at any one of our hub,
flights come to a standstill,
Passengers are delayed,
flights get cancelled. In
a statement, United Airlines says the
company is working with the Association of
Flight Attendants to come to an agreement
and all flights will operate as planned
while the flight attendants pic.
The protest wasn't the only thig
happening at San Diego International.
It was a busy day ahead of
the Labor Day weekend.
AAA says more people will travel
this weekend than last Labor Da.
They're expecting as many as
14,000,000 to travel by air.
There were no major problems
reported today with flights.
Southwest Airlines had a meltdon
last Christmas, you remember,
while United had one last summe.
Today is International Overdose
Awareness Day and San Diego Couy
leaders are sharing resources ad
information people have right he
pushing for an end to overdose deaths.
This comes as Narcan becomes available
over the counter in pharmacies.
CBS Eight's Chris Crow has more tonight on
what officials and advocates are saying
and this is a very visual demonstration.
This was also extremely emotional as we
heard testimony from people whot
their loved ones to a drug overdoses,
whether that be fentanyl or other drugs.
In fact, take a listen to
what this mom had to say
on May 5th of that year. Connor
took one pill before
going to school
that day and died within minuteI
cannot bring my son
back, but I know speaking
today, as well as that
many San Diego
County events, I'm hoping I maka
difference in fighting this epidemic.
And that was mom Laura Brinker White,
her son Connors. You just heard
he's 17 when he died
of an overdose that happened
back on May 5th, 2021.
He took a pill just before schol
and died within minutes. His st?
One of heartbreak and unfortuna,
one that we've seen too far too
often here in San Diego County.
In fact, there were purple flags that
were put out here on the lawn in front
of the county Administration building
to represent the more than 1300 people
lost to drugs and alcohol in San
Diego County just last year alo.
In fact, 62% of those deaths of those
accidental overdose deaths involved fentanyl.
So again that being one of the
main contributors to this issue,
in 2022, the youngest victim wa,
the oldest was 78.
So today moms as you just heard
like Laura also local leaders
and advocates called for action.
Also for more awareness on the issue,
they want to see not only enforcement
address but also the root causes
of addiction
instead of just thinking
that if we stop the supply,
the demand that we have is going
to stop and that's not the case.
We need to not only stop the su,
but we need to work more on the demand.
Because if we don't have the dr,
that doesn't mean the people that are
addicted are not going to be drg
addicts and have these issues anymore.
And that was the mother of Eric Gonzalez,
who also lost her son there
just before he turned 22.
And again, we heard a lot of sts
about heartbreak and how you are seeing
these families who aren't just again,
losing their loved ones.
They're dealing with the trauma themselves,
but then trying to turn
that to use that for good.
And of course, as we just pointed out here,
Narcan obviously a a big component of this,
making sure that that's availabe
for those who are going throughe
struggles of addiction so that we could
potentially save more lives and hopefully
get them on the path to sobriet.
Again, all of these things go hand in
hand and that was what today was about,
trying to bring awareness to alf
the different facets of trying n
to fight this problem reporting
in downtown San Diego.
I'm Chris Grove for CBSA.
Thank you, Chris.
We still had dozens of alleged r
thieves are off the streets ton.
We have details of Operation Sunrise.
Plus the muscle car thieves are stealing
the most and how to keep yours .
We had a mixed bag of clouds
today. You had some cuminous clouds of
building over the mountains and you also
had some upper level clouds that were
just kind of covering every parf
our county. We could actually squeeze
some showers out of those cloud.
We'll take a look at your
complete forecast coming up
and up next what some San Diego
Water customers claim is the rel
reason their rates are going up.