New council drops threat of foreclosure on homeowners for not paying Aumsville police fee

AUMSVILLE – A major point of contention that led to a recall and near complete turnover of the Aumsville city council was repealed in Monday’s first meeting of the new city council.

Headed by new mayor Derek Clevenger – the chief petitioner of the recall election last year – the new council ended the city’s ability to foreclose on a resident's home if they are unable to pay the $12 monthly police fee.

The fee, which was designed to provide the city with around-the-clock police service, was added to each homeowner’s monthly water bill after being passed in December 2017.

“If someone would be severely delinquent, we’re just going to send it to collections,” Clevenger said.

“Taking out that foreclosure piece was big for me.”

It was the backlash from how the police fee was added to water bills that led to city councilors Kevin Crawford, Lorie Walters and Trina Lee being recalled in July 2018.

More:Aumsville recall election set after council approves monthly public safety fee

In the November general election, the group that led the recall defeated the incumbent councilors with Clevenger winning the race for mayor and Angelica Ceja and Nico Casarez winning two of the three council positions.

The only councilor who still has a position after being part of the original decision is Della Seney, who won re-election in November.

Clevenger said Aumsville has a small hardship fund to help those who can’t pay their water bill.

He said he intends to add language into the ordinance that provides protections for senior citizens and low-income families.

“The last thing someone wants is to have someone to have their water off,” Clevenger said.

More:A group whose public face is millennials triggered an overhaul in city government

Clevenger said after being elected mayor that repealing the police fee wasn’t his intention and he agreed to the fee in principal. He said he wanted to put such a fee up for a vote in a general election.

But now the city’s residents don’t have to worry about losing their homes if they can’t pay some or all of their water bill.

“To me that’s ridiculous,” Clevenger said. “There are multiple other options the city has other than taking somebody’s house.

“Getting that terminology out of there was huge.”

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler