Glenview Files Countersuit, Water War Continues

Glenview has asked a Cook County judge to force Niles to turn over all the documents it wants to conduct an audit to determine whether Niles has been overcharging a Glenview-owned water utility since 1997, and, if so, to order Niles to refund the amount of the overcharge.

The requests come in a countersuit filed against Niles, which has asked Cook County Judge Rita Novak for a preliminary injunction to force Glenview to pay its water bills for North Maine Utilities from April until now. Glenview, which owns North Maine Utilities, stopped payment on the bills in May, saying it has put the money in an interest bearing escrow account until it can figure out whether Niles has been overcharging it for water.

At the July 26 Niles village board meeting, Trustee Jo LoVerde said the unpaid bills would amount to more than $1.4 million by the end of July, and that the village of Niles will spend more than $500,000 buying water from Chicago to supply North Maine Utilities.

Earlier:

Attorneys for both villages are expected to appear before Novak on Aug. 5 when she will decide whether she must hold a hearing and collect evidence before ruling on Niles’ request for an emergency injunction.

Niles has bought Chicago water and supplied it to the roughly 44,000 customers of North Maine Utilities since 1990. Nearly all of the customers live in unincorporated areas southwest of Glenview, although about 75 live in Niles. Glenview bought the utility company in 1997 and has continued operating under the 1990 agreement, which calls for Niles to charge the lowest price for water delivery that it charges to any of its own residents.

Now Glenview is arguing that Niles’ water fees actually include money to pay for sewer service, although Niles does not include a specific charge for sewer service on any of its bills to residents. It became an issue when, last year, the Niles village board began offering a 19 percent rebate to customers of North Maine who live in Niles.

That rebate was meant to make up for the sewer fees that North Maine charges – fees other Niles residents do not have to pay, according to George Van Geem, Niles’ village manager. The Niles village board rescinded its decision to offer the rebates earlier this summer, after they became an issue in the dispute.

Glenview’s attorney, Eric Patt, said Glenview won’t know exactly how much money Niles should pay until it can conduct an audit aimed at finding out whether any water payment money went toward supplying sewer service as well. If it did, North Maine Utilities should not have had to pay that portion of the water fee, since it supplies sewer service separately.

“We think we’ve been overcharged, but we don’t know how much, and we won’t know how much until we can look at the documents,” Patt said, adding that the documents it seeks are generally public records.

But Van Geem has said the request is overly burdensome, including “volumes of unrelated information.” The 1990 agreement calls only for an audit of specific monthly invoices, he said.

Stay tuned to Patch for more updates.