Lakewood Water District

Lakewood Water District personnel behaved unethically when they required me under threat of financial sanction to pay for a bank charge the District incurred when Ranier Title stopped a check to the District. Ranier Title had written two final payout checks to the District after my home in Oakbrook closed and withdrew one of them, but the District threated to come after me for the $25 bank charge because, per Marika Thomas of the District, Ranier Title didn’t have an account with them and I did. The District is not subject to consumer complaints through the Washington State Attorney General’s Office because it is overseen by an elected Board of Commissioners, and I was advised by the Attorney General’s Office representative that it therefore has no jurisdiction over the District. So I wrote two emails to Lawrence Ghilarducci, Jr., the President of the District’s Board of Commissioners and did not even receive the courtesy of a reply. When I recontacted the Attorney General’s Office I was told the only way I could dispute the charge was by hiring a private attorney, and I was not about to do that over a $25 charge, unfair as it was. The District is thus protected from having to deal with consumer concerns such as mine and as a result can conduct business unfairly and unethically with impunity. So, District customers who are selling your homes, beware. You too could be held fiscally liable for charges the District accrues that you may not have caused.