The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913, 1909-06-16
Annual Midsummer Injunction
Suit Filed by Spring Valley
Water Company After Odd
Pennies and Blames SUI
pervisOrs

q PRING VALLEY is after the odd
- cents and, as usual. blames the
supervisors. Having suddenly come
10 realize that every copper counts,
the water company is now taking
penny toll from the consumers, and
woe to him who disregards the odd
cent or so of HIS bill. President
Bourn may be expected before long
to give the city a Spring Valley slot
machine-drop penny and fill the
pitcher.
Time was when Spring Valley had
a soul above the odd coppers, but
that time has passed. Now a water
bin is figured like a bargain coun-
ter price, and if you haven't the
PENNIES you must fork over post
age stamp.
OF course the supervisors are
blamed for the innovation. me
company blames the supervisors for
ANYTHING from inadequate service to
the collection of coppers. The
officials of the company explain that
their revenues have been so shorn
by the board that they must be
penny-wise. and they are, to the
tune of about $4,000 a year.
Beginning with the lst or May,
Spring Valley put into effect new
rule whereby water bills are inquired
with mathematical eXactitude and
are collected down to the coppers.
Where the company formerly col
lected s1.45 it now collects $1.46 or
$147, as the case may be.
4 rol anT
or two, the company is not above
spending four in postage. This has
been done in many instances, as the
company officials admit, but they
hope to have the new rule thor
oughly understood in the course of
month or so, and then that $4,000
of additional revenue will begin to
roll in.
A local consumer who made no
kick when that extra Is per cent
was collected by injunction" got
mad when his bill jumped from $I.45
to S147, and wrote to the company
about II. The answer in part read
Acknowledging receipt Of your letter. /
would say that we are unable TO accept the
check returned 10 you, for the reason that 1t
does not 1T the amount of your bill. If you
will return the check with sufficient post
age stamps TO cover the difference the mat
ter will be In order.
/ fesr that you assume that the company
has increased It's rate IN some way. Sucn.
however, is not the case. The bill Is higher
than usual simply because the company is
now compelled. through shortage Of reve
nue. caused by the action of the board Of
supervisors. TO collect odd cents. In the past
these cents have been waived and the rate
payers for a long period derived this ad-
vantage at the cOmpany's expense.
J. s. Wallace, manager of the
water sales department, explained
yesterday that the bad supervisors
had made the look after- the-pen-
MES" policy necessary. He claimed
that in the past the company had
Topped off a many as four odd cents
in a bill, not daring to add a cent
for fear of FORGETTING it's charter.
This liberality is a thing of the
past however; there will be no
more looping off. To show that the
new policy will pay, Wallace eXhib-
tied the following estimated reve-
nue. for the coming fiscal year. in
which the accumulation of odd cents
bulks large:
Private consumers. ST .S96. 634. 20
Plus odd cents. ......... 100000
Increase 3 per cent. -. 95.363.3O
IOtai ....<.- 80. $2,Ol1 100000
IF the board would only let us
raise or lower the bills to the near
est multiple of five, the collection of
the odd cents would be unneces-
sary." said Wallace Il told them
about it, but they did nothing. and