San Diego officials say about 87,000 city trash customers are being affected by a trash billing scandal caused by a technical glitch in data that the city gave to the county tax collector.
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That estimate is included in a new frequently asked questions page the city created Wednesday to help trash customers affected by the over-billing.
The page answers 12 questions, including how customers can check whether they are affected by comparing how much the city’s trash billing portal says they owe to how much the county property tax website says they owe.
The page says that anyone who has already paid an incorrectly high amount will get a refund, but it does not say how quickly that will happen.
Michael Mertz of Mira Mesa said by phone Thursday that he paid both installments of his property tax bill shortly after it was posted on the county website on Sept. 16. Mertz says he paid $535 but believes he should have paid $441 instead. He’d like a refund as soon as possible.
The FAQ page provides no details on the technical glitch, what caused it or what’s being done to prevent it from happening again.
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The page says the roughly 87,000 people affected are spread across the city, not focused in any particular neighborhoods.
It says some customers were undercharged because of the glitch, but it doesn’t estimate how many customers were undercharged.
The 87,000 figure is a bit higher than the number estimated by a group of customers who discovered the over-billing last weekend and alerted The San Diego Union-Tribune. After analyzing roughly 100 bills, they estimated that one in three customers were affected — which would be about 75,000 of the city’s 220,000 trash customers.
On Wednesday, Mayor Todd Gloria issued a statement calling the errors “unacceptable” and vowing to get corrected billing amounts to the county by the end of the day.
An aide to Gloria, Matt Yagyagan, said Wednesday that the mayor was confident all county tax billing accounts for affected city residents would be corrected by Friday.
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