Even as interim Hialeah Mayor Jacqueline Garcia-Roves campaigns on a promise to lower residents’ soaring water and sewer bills, Miami-Dade County has filed a lawsuit against the city, claiming it owes nearly $18 million in unpaid utility debt.
“I’m confronting the county right now,” Garcia-Roves said at a press conference on Tuesday. “I am disputing the $18 million they say we owe — which we don’t. It’s a faulty meter that’s been reading our wastewater incorrectly. It’s reading air instead of water, and they’ve been trying to charge us for that. I refuse to pay those $18 million with our taxpayers’ money.”
In a complaint filed July 24 in Miami-Dade circuit court, the county claims Hialeah violated its wholesale wastewater services agreement beginning in fiscal year 2020–21 under then-Mayor Carlos Hernández and continuing through 2022–23 under then-Mayor Esteban “Steve” Bovo…