| Regulators Grill Brooke Water Company Over Troubled Service in Arizona Town |
Regulators Grill Brooke Water Company Over Troubled Service in Arizona Town
Brooke Water LLC serves about 2,000 customers in the Parker area of La Paz County, and is managed by Robert Hardcastle of Bakersfield, Calif. He also manages another water company called Circle City with about 190 customers in Maricopa County west of metro Phoenix, and he owns a 10 percent stake in both companies. Corporation Commissioners appeared willing to install an interim manager of the companies Friday, but the legal procedure to do that could take a couple of months. Instead, the commissioners approved a plan to make repairs and improve customer service, but also directed commission staff to begin the process of writing the documents required to install an interim manager if Hardcastle doesn't make the improvements. They gave him until late October to present a plan for improvements, and the four commissioners agreed that would be a quicker way to help customers. According to a Corporation Commission report, as many as 200 Parker customers were out of service starting Aug. 21 at 9 p.m. when the company had a series of five water-line breaks over three days. The company has had four other, shorter, unplanned outages this year and one at Circle City. “I’m very angry right now that we have this kind of reaction from your customers,” Commissioner Tom Forese said. “You’ve cut corners to make a buck and you have not taken care of people." Hardcastle said the company is addressing the issues. “Frankly, we made some mistakes,” Hardcastle said. “We are looking forward to making some improvements in these systems.” Chairman Doug Little said Hardcastle has taken profits from the company and not made needed system repairs to ensure people have water. Commissioner Andy Tobin suggested putting a new manager in control of the company. “This gentleman is not a good neighbor,” Tobin said of Hardcastle. Hardcastle also took questions from customers who complained of smelly, discolored water and a Costa Rican call center that doesn’t address their complaints. “The water smells like sewer coming through the faucet,” said customer Michelle Williams, who owns a mobile-home park on the Brooke system in Parker. “There are rocks and pebbles in the water. … I have people here in my park without water.” Among the improvements ordered by commissioners was to establish a call center in or near the utility service territory. |
Ryan Randazzo, The Republic | 
Arizona utility regulators on Friday initiated legal requirements to take over a troubled water company in Parker because of pipeline bursts that left taps dry for customers in August, and for recurring water-quality and customer-service complaints.