Tampa water bill task force update & city spent $165,000 on Gasparilla listen

Tags: high water bills, water, Tampa City Council, Gasparilla, Hyde Park

Steve Daignault, Tampa's administrator of public works and utility services.

photo by Kate Bradshaw/WMNF

Today Tampa City Council heard an update on the administration’s task force into unusually high water bills. Recently the council suspended the top billing tiers for the city’s highest water users. Steve Daignault, the city’s utilities administrator, said only a small fraction of the spiked bills are due to tiered billing.

Daignault said the water bill task force has taken some steps to alleviate the problem.

He said they are still investigating potential causes for the large number of unusually high bills.

The water bill task force’s full report will be presented to city council on March 17.

Several weeks ago, some Hyde Park residents asked Tampa City Council for an audit of Gasparilla. They feel the city spends too much on sponsoring the event and doesn’t get a good return on that investment. Today, Tampa’s recreation administrator, Santiago Corrada, said this year’s Gasparilla festival cost the city $165,784.87.

Corrada said that amount doesn’t include the cost of salary for Police officers because they did not get overtime and would have worked anyway. He told council he considers the value of the police officers’ time for that day an in-kind donation to the festival.

Previous WMNF coverage of high water bills

Steve Daignault, Administrator of Public Works and Utility Services

Previous WMNF coverage of Gasparilla costs

Previous WMNF coverage of Gasparilla

Santiago Corrada, Convention Center Tourism Recreation and Cultural Administrator