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American Morning
Small Florida Church Receives $2 Million-Plus Electric Bill
Aired May 31, 2001 - 11:46 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: If you think that folks in California have problems with huge power bills, you've got to hear this next story. A small church in Florida usually pays less than $20 a month for electricity. Last month, the church got a bill, like usual, this time for $2 million for the month.
We get more on the story now from reporter Heather Van Nest with our affiliate WJXT, in Jacksonville, Florida.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CARL ANDERSON, CHURCH MEMBER: $2,241,573.74.
HEATHER VAN NEST, WJXT REPORTER: What did you think when you opened it?
ANDERSON: We were all because it's unbelievable.
VAN NEST (voice-over): Unbelievable that a tiny church tucked away in an Oceanway strip mall could get an electrical bill like this.
ANDERSON: We thought it was a little funny, and then we got seriously thinking about it -- Hey, they might really hold us to it.
VAN NEST: It is a multi-million dollar mistake. The 15-member congregation works on a shoestring budget, volunteering its time, preaching to prisoners, and mailing out boxes of Bibles.
REV. LINDA ROBSON: There's no way we can come up with $2.5 million anyway.
ANDERSON: The family more or less pays for all the Bibles and the upkeep of the building, the rent and the lights. So like I say, we don't have a whole lot of members, so it is kind of rough on us.
VAN NEST: The reverend called JEA to complain and was told they actually owed an amount closer to last month's bill -- around $17.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAGAN: With more on this eye-opening power-bill story, we have Pastor Linda Robson. She's joining us on the phone from Oceanway, Florida.
Linda, hello, thanks for joining us.
ROBSON: Hi, thank you.
KAGAN: I hope you're not paying for this phone call, because with that $2 million electricity bill, you probably can't afford that.
ROBSON: That's right.
KAGAN: Tell us the number again: $2 million...
ROBSON: I don't have the exact number here.
KAGAN: About $2.2 million.
ROBSON: $2.2 million, right.
KAGAN: For a month of electricity.
ROBSON: Yes.
KAGAN: As I understand it, you don't have a huge power need in the one little part where your church is: five lightbulbs, a microwave, a coffee pot, and a window air conditioner.
ROBSON: Right. Right.
KAGAN: That usually runs the church about what?
ROBSON: Less than $20 a month.
KAGAN: That's quite a jump, I would say.
ROBSON: Yes, it is. It is.
KAGAN: I would imagine the first thing done when any of us open a bill that doesn't seem quite right is you get on the phone, and you call up. What was first response that you got from the service person you were talking to?
ROBSON: Well, because I didn't think it was real in the first place, I did want to check with JEA and gave her the account number off the bill. And she told me that the bill was $17.59.
KAGAN: Did you tell her about the bill that you had in front of you?
ROBSON: I told her that's the account number on the bill I'm holding, but you have overcharged us. And I told her we didn't have a previous month; it said that there was a previous amount owed of over $1 million.
And I said, Besides that, you overcharged us.
And she said, Ma'am, we don't overcharge -- we read meters.
So I continued, and I read her off the amount. And she said, That's not correct. I show that you owe $17.59.
Then I said I can throw this away.
She said, No, ma'am, you'll either have to pay it or dispute it, or they'll cut your lights off.
KAGAN: At that point, it kind of stopped being funny, I would imagine, and then you get a little bit concerned, like, they might even cut your power off.
ROBSON: Yes, when you were young and at school, in elementary school, do you know how when you played on the monkey bars and held upside down and all the blood rushed to your head? That's what I felt like.
KAGAN: It was that feeling.
ROBSON: Yes.
KAGAN: How do things stand now?
ROBSON: After several phones call and faxing it over a couple of times to them, they did call, late that afternoon, and say that they would correct the bill and send me a paper in writing saying that I was not liable for that.
KAGAN: I think that would be a good thing to keep on file.
ROBSON: Was anybody ever able to explain what exactly happened here, what went wrong? Did you maybe receive somebody else's bill for $2.2 million?
ROBSON: I really couldn't really imagine anybody having a bill that high. But the lady told us that they really do have someone that has a bill that high. They would not tell us who it was, but said that, apparently, we got their bill with our name on it.
KAGAN: What a mixup. To find them -- we'll have to put them on the air as well. In the meantime, have you paid the $17.
ROBSON: She's supposed to send the corrected bill. We haven't received it yet. I would wait and see until you see that corrected bill.
In the meantime, don't throw away that $2 million bill. I would frame it and put it right up on the wall of the church.
ROBSON: Absolutely.
KAGAN: Linda Robson, thank you so much for joining us, and good luck keeping those power bills down.
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