Willows' abatement bills grow like weeds

An internal audit is in the works after dozens of angry Willows property owners protested their weed abatement bills earlier this week, claiming they were significantly overcharged.

"If I'm forced to pay this bill, I promise to pay with pennies, nickels and dimes — unrolled," complained Gerald Gable, a Red Bluff resident, who owns a home in the 400 block of West Willows Street.

Gable was just one of many furious property owners who addressed the City Council on Tuesday. He said he was speaking with attorneys to see if he has any legal recourse to avoid paying his $8,631 abatement bill.

Abatement costs have skyrocketed citywide, with some property owners charged more than 10 times the amounts paid in previous years, according to municipal records.

City documents show that last year, Willows paid local contractor Dale Myers $17,649.63 to clear weeds, trim trees and shrubs and remove potential fire hazards from properties.

This year, the city paid Chico-based contractor Ronald Riisager $82,531.55 to perform the same tasks.

However, Riisager's work was reportedly much more involved and used more work crews than Myers one-man efforts, city officials confirmed.

Riisager was out of town this week and could not be reached for comment.

City Manager Steve Holsinger said that comparing this year's cost to last year's was "not a good analogy."

Bills were higher this year, but the scope of work was greater, Holsinger said Wednesday.

Additionally the bill was expected to be higher because of an increase in foreclosed homes, authorities said.

Holsinger pointed out that each year, property owners protest their abatement bills.

"The city should not be in the weed abatement business at all," Holsinger said. "We have some property owners that were willing to simply pay the bill, but now they're angry because it was higher than they expected."

Complete records of previous billing years were not available and City Clerk Natalie Butler said many of the records were lost and never recovered when one of the city's main computers crashed earlier this year.

Jeffrey Haynes, a Millville resident who owns a lot in the 1300 block of West Sycamore Street, was so upset when he received his bill for $10,058.86, that he went directly to the Willows Fire Department on July 20 to complain.

Hanyes, 58, admittedly lost his temper while yelling at fire Chief Wayne Peabody and Capt. Skip Sykes and was eventually arrested for disturbing the peace and resisting arrest.

Haynes apologized publicly to Peabody and Sykes, saying the problem is not with the Fire Department, but rather with the "open ended" contract the city signed with Riisager.

Haynes said he has owned the property for about 10 years and has simply paid his abatement bill each year.

"Usually the bill is between $200 and $500, so when I got this one, I was obviously, a little angry," Haynes said Tuesday. "The problem is that the contract sets no limits for how much work (Riisager) could charge for."

Haynes, who is also a landscape contractor that handles weed abatement for cities such as Redding, said Willows needs to clean up the contract and require contractors to give price bids individually on each property that has been selected for abatement before any work begins.

Willows has used the same billing and bidding system for the last 25 years, authorities said.

Haynes is just one of many property owners who said he believes Riisager may have over-billed the city or charged for work that was never done.

Though agreeing to conduct an internal audit, city officials disagree with that claim, and defend Riisager's work.

"A preliminary review found no inappropriate billing," Holsinger said.

Several people, including Haynes, also claimed that Riisager was not properly insured, but Peabody said Riisager's insurance was checked out before any work was done and everything was in order.

The city never received insurance information from subcontractors used by Riisager, but Peabody said those documents would be received during the audit and noted that Riisager used a reputable company, Firestorm of Chico.

"The insurance was definitely there," Peabody said.

There is also some disagreement between the city and property owners about whether or not Riisager, an unlicensed contractor, could legally subcontract parts of the work, such as wood chipping.

Both Peabody and Holsinger said the problem with the weed abatement program is multi-faceted and should not be blamed entirely on any one person or group.

For his part, Haynes agreed.

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're all complicit in this," Haynes told the assembled crowd of about 50 people at City Hall. "The city did not do this. But the contract format is inadequate."

It is not clear what action, if any, the city could possibly take to reduce some of the abatement bills, but the council said they are interested in finding out what its options are.

"Some of these bills are unimaginable," Councilman Jim Yoder said.

All bills include a 40 percent administrative charge that goes directly to the city, and officials said they could consider reducing or even eliminating that charge.

However, given the city's financial woes and a solid $250,000 target deficit that the council has pledged not to exceed, the prospect of simply eating an $82,000 bill is not very appetizing to a council that hopes to avoid lay-offs this year.

The Willows Police Department is expected to be involved in the audit, but Chief Bill Spears was careful to note the audit is not a criminal investigation.

"If they find some evidence of criminal activity, we'll open an investigation at that time," Spears said.

The audit cannot begin until the public hearing protests have concluded Aug. 10.

Peabody seemed eager to get the audit process started.

"We'll examine the system and make recommendations to the council," Peabody said. "But I guarantee this will never happen again."